Andrew Sullivan suggests my concerns about the Obama administration’s belief it need not justify the assassination of American citizens are overdone:
These things always begin with “a pretty isolated example”. And if a government kills one of its fellow-citizens without seeking any legal mandate for doing so then what is that if it’s not an “assassination”? This is not something that is dependent upon the status or salubrity of the victim.[A] single American al Qaeda terrorist in a foreign country actively waging war against us seems to me to be a pretty isolated example. And Obama always said he would fight a war against al Qaeda more ruthlessly than Bush. As he has. I agree that invoking state secrets so comprehensively as to prevent any scrutiny of this is a step way too far. But I do believe we are at war; and that killing those who wish to kill us before they can do so is not the equivalent of “assassination”.
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