Why Americans Argue About the al-Awlaki Killing

Like I said, I can disagree with people of reason and even agree to disagree. But when you you equated the victims of 9/11 and all Americans who disagree with you as evil terrorists, you've lost any interest I might have in engaging further with you. A man of character would apologize and not just to me, since you didn't address it specifically to me.

 

Let's face it, shall we, if Bush was still president, Republicans and Baggers would be proclaiming this a huge victory for America.

 

He wasn't just vocal against US policies...

He promoted terrorism...

And was a part of AQ...

This has nothing to do with nationalism...

 

Basically we'd be looking at the other side of the same coin...

Repubs would be jubilant, and Dems would be calling for Bush's arrest and prosecution as a war criminal...

Sad state of affairs we are in...

 

Yep. I've even heard wingers criticizing Obama for Osama's death. I dunno, maybe because he was in a sovereign country we should have let him blow up DisneyWorld, eh?

 

I am stilling saying it. x 100

Better than treating him to a diary queen blizzard.
I would have preferred a modern sniper round..

But hey..reach out and touch them all..

 

As I said, I was angry and frustrated when I wrote that post and should have expressed my position more rationally. Though I never equated "victims of 9/11" with terrorists.

I do think there is little difference between an act of vigilante violence and this killing. And I think that sets extremely dangerous precedent.

 

Criminals that flee the country are still covered under the US legal system.

How many times do I have to tell you there are no combatants unless there's a war and there is no war?

 

Um, yes, that's precisely my "hang up." I don't understand why it's your hang up too, that crimes should have to be proven before you can punish people for them.

I don't follow the Queen of Hearts logic of "sentence first, verdict after."

 

You sound exactly like a neocon talk show host six years ago. I don't know how you partisans can live with yourselves, putting party above principle.

There are ways to go after alleged criminals without giving the president absolute despotic power over life and death. Remember your beloved Obama won't be president forever...

 

America is in a War... A War against the Soverign Nation of Terror and Drugs and anyone found supporting these two Evil Nations must be killed. I only wish I was around during the War on Poverty we could have assassinated so many more people for hearsay.

 

When any person makes a religious, blood oath to kill me, everyone I have ever know and everything my nation stands for, and that is what this terrorist and all the others have done. He is telling me that he considers my life forfeit.

Fair enough, so is his life.

He has a belief he was willing to die for. I have a belief that I am willing to die for. It is just common courtesy to let all of them die first.

 

So any nutjob who threatens you or this country has forfeited their life... Even if they don't act on those words you can by killing them? Just because certain men spout out hateful words doesn't give you the right to kill them because if that were the case you're opening the Door for Mass Slaughter in this country.

 

" Even if they don't act on those words you"

Al-Wacki and the others have acted on their words.

And anyone anywhere that threatens me to the point that I believe that they WILL act on their words, DIES first. I'm ex military, killing an ENEMY is not hard, and carries no residuals.

I like Patton's words. Dying for a cause in not such a great thing. Making the other SOB die for his cause is a great thing."

 

US citizen killed without trial or due process.

Most people don't care. Shows you that this country needs a bloody revolution.

 

Let's abolish trial by jury altogether and go back to vigilantism and blood vendettas.

 

An excellent plan.

 

I prefer the developments of the past 2500 years of civilization.

 

I think I'm with AV on this one. But then, I don't really know the situation as (hopefully) thoroughly as the people making the calls.

Why did he have to be killed?

 

We don't know. It's a "state secret." We shouldn't assume that the people "making the calls" know what they're talking about, let alone are on the up and up about it. There is no accountability here. Zero.

 

The is the current "War on Obesity" according to current logic, we can start blowing up obese people around the world.

Although, like the "War on Terror" and the "War on Drugs" they are ideological wars but they are called wars thus we can kill and arrest who we want. There are no actual rules so we can make it up as we go. I actually saw a person with two donuts the other day that was speaking out and possibly recruiting more people toward becoming obese.

 

Smoke and mirrors. 20/20 vision lets you see it never happened. Humans have always been civilized only when it is convenient.

 

Somehow, you haven't convinced to throw the protections of habeas corpus and presumption of innocence out the window. Basically, you claim everything is lawless, in which case, I have even less reason to trust anything Washington does or says than I did before.

 

The Geneva Convention(s) have quite a lot to say about non state actors waging war. Don't pretend to represent international law when you don't know what it is.

 

We can't test that, but we can certianly test how the left would react about:

Continued Rendition
Targeting Killings
Drone Attacks
US war in Afghanistan & Iraq
Ignoring War Powers Act for Libya
Going to war in Libya
"Warrantless" wiretapping
Renewed Patriot Act

...under a Democratic President. The answer? They seem to be pretty cool about it. The only thing the left is still pissed about is Gitmo, but that's only because it's Gitmo, not that we're keeping terrorist prisoners since the Obama administration violated US law by keeping a AQ prisoner on a warship for months.

So the real problem with Bush was that he was a Texan with an accent. Obama can double down on Bush's policies and be declared the smartest man in the world.

Hmmm... getting away with being Bush but calling yourself Obama... maybe he is the smartest man in the world!