What if I was plotting to overthrow Obama in coastal China? Would he be sending drones to get me? I am not plotting that, by the way, but I won't send for an absentee ballot if he does not reverse the Holder holding. The Attorney General of the United States, in the long tradition of John C. Yoo and forsaking the long tradition of RFK, stood before a group of law students and dared to say that there is a difference between judicial and due process? Is this even defensible, Professor Dycus?
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It is legal to kill an enemy combatant in war. It is not legal to intentionally kill someone in civil society, unless it is in defense of self or someone else. Maybe in the past we could draw a bright line between
ReplyDeletemere criminals and armed enemies of the country, but that does not seem possible today. If someone is part of a group that proclaims it is out to do harm to the US and its citizens, can we 'go on offense' against that person or that organization? I know we would have to figure out who gets to decide which groups are our enemies and who are the members of those groups, but leaving that difficulty aside, can the US 'declare war' against people who intend to do the US harm? Does it make any difference whether the people are foreign, or Americans living abroad?
Isn't the threshold question, have we declared war? Isn't the answer to that, not since December of 1941? We have had the KKK and various militias since time immemorial. I just watched J. Edgar Hoover and just posted about Vanzetti. What reason do we have to use our army instead of law enforcement and negotiated treaties with sovereign, recognized states to chase these bastards?
ReplyDeleteWhat if the 'bad guys' have in effect declared war on us? How do we declare war on people who aren't a country? What if they are hiding in a country where they are allowed, or they are at least protected from law enforcement? Do we have to wait until they come after us? I ask these questions because I think this issue is more complicated that you might think from those who write that this is "absolutely wrong, no question about it." There are times when we will have to attack our enemies, and war is always 'extra-judicial.' That doesn't make it inherently wrong in every instance.
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