quote:

ORIGINAL: jlf1961

I am a firm believer in the "Use the biggest damn hammer in the tool box short to get a job done right."

In this case, if a drone strike equates to a tack hammer, then the Arclight type strike would be equal to a 10 pound sledge hammer.

Of course considering the on going losses in Afghanistan, I also think pulling the troops out of the country and carpet bombing the non urban areas would serve two jobs, get the training camps and get rid of a shit ton of dumb bombs we have in the Air Force inventory.

quote:

ORIGINAL: jlf1961

I have a suggestion.

Have the CIA "leak" that this individual is actually an undercover agent and we dont have to worry about the problem anymore.

quote:

ORIGINAL: jlf1961

quote:

U.S. weighs lethal strike against American citizen

The Obama administration is weighing whether to approve a lethal strike against a U.S. citizen who is accused of being part of the al-Qaeda terrorist network overseas and involved in ongoing plotting against American targets, U.S. officials said.

The officials said that no decision has been reached on whether to add the alleged operative to the administration’s kill list, a step that would require Justice Department approval under new counterterrorism guidelines adopted by President Obama last year.

U.S. officials have not revealed the identity of the alleged operative, or the country where he is believed to be located, citing concern that disclosing those details would send him deeper into hiding and prevent a possible drone strike.

washington post story

At first my thoughts were, a traitor dies a traitor's death.

However, I have a few problems with part of this.

1) The change in procedure has at least on GOP member supporting it.

2) It makes sense on the surface, but there is still the "innocent till proven guilty" thing.

A drone strike targeting one guy? If he is in a terrorist camp, how about reviving the old "Arclight" B52 missions from the Vietnam Era to take out the entire camp?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zonie63 (Emphasis by DaddySatyr)

There are no doubt plenty of fugitives and terrorists abroad who are against America and might target Americans, and if I genuinely believed that our government's sole objective was the honorable and selfless goal of protecting American lives, then I might see the practical necessity of resorting to such a drastic and extremely risky measure as using a drone strike on foreign soil. If there is no diplomatic solution and no way of convincing whatever government to hand over this person through legal processes, then we might be risking war, depending on which nation we're talking about.

Isn't Dennis Rodman still in North Korea? Could that be the guy they're talking about?

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ORIGINAL: igor2003

quote:

ORIGINAL: kdsub
I'm all for hunting this man down... with the cross hairs on his head I would get on a loud speaker and ask him if he would kindly raise his hands and get into the helicopter and come back for trial. If he gave me the finger I would blow his ass away.
Say I am a suspected criminal on the run.... police have me cornered... they say stop running and get on the ground what do you do if I keep running? They shoot me as they should... same with this ass. If we ask him to come in for questioning and he says no then we have the right to kill him if he resists arrest.
Butch

This is my basic feeling as well. If an American "citizen" goes to a foreign county, and it can be shown that he (or she) is plotting to, has, or is harming other American citizens, then as far as I'm concerned he has renounced his citizenship and has no more special "rights" than any other foreigner that plots or acts to harm America. If a trial "must" be held, then let it be known in the country where that person is residing that a trial is going to take place on such-and-such a date and that he has the right to appear or to send representation. If he shows up, fine. If not, try him in absentia.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Artisculation2
Hmm It amuses me, since the fall of the Ottoman Empire, which the west had a hand in, its always been the west militarily fucking about in the middle east, not the middle east fucking about in the west, yet somehow they are the terrorists. Surely Chomsky is right, if you want to end terrorism, don't take part in it.
Drone strikes are extra-judicial killings and often kill whole families. Though US approval of extra-judicial familicide is in no doubt, they have not only been supporting Istrael in familicide for decades but bankrolling and supplying weapons for such crimes.
And we all wonder why the middle east is shit. It really isn't a surprise.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kana

......It ain't exactly a huge step from that to Kristallnacht.

Our way of life-we care so much about it that we'll jettison it (Along with all our morals, values and ethics) to defend it. That makes no fucking sense.

quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

..... The destruction of the target and surrounding area would be absolute, but the psychological impact would go far beyond the death zone.

quote:

ORIGINAL: DaddySatyr
The part I highlighted is what gives me great pause. If I could trust my government (which I haven't since about 1992), it would be a no-brainer but there are waaaaay too many things at stake, here.

I like the word: "ex-patriot" for a reason and I believe that there are plenty of ex-patriot Americans that would take up arms against us. If an American citizen were found on a battle field, wearing a burka amidst a bunch of Al Qaeda, I would simply think: "Ooooops! Oh-fuckin-well!"

I'm not all that sanguine on the idea of drone strikes, in-and-of themselves. I'm not sure they are the proper way to do things. So that doesn't help.

All-in-all, I'd say that until I have some kind of hard evidence, I'm against this (but it is fun to watch the Obummer minions frothing at the mouth for a good, old-fashioned blood-letting).

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ORIGINAL: mnottertail

I'm not particulary het up about it, we kill people without a trial every day of the week in America.

Sometimes, we don't even bother with a show trial.