The Drone Debate

Rick wrote: So if we're fine with letting one man (Obama) target and kill anyone he wishes anywhere in the world (if he percieves a threat of course), what will we do when some other country(s) believe they are being threatened by some person or group on our soil and send drones here to hunt them down?

And how many people did we capture in the last four years? Maybe it's just cleaner to kill them instead of capture and interrogating them... and maybe it's what civilized Nobel Prize winners do.

Up to now that's what made this country different than Al-Qaeda. I don't like the smell we've taken on.

Obama & Nixon? It isn't illegal when the President does it?

From other prelim internet sources, the bule pickup was shot up and two women shot by "mistake".....police action. They are looking for an ex-cop that was fired for ratting on LA cops that abused arrested citizens......much more to follow I am sure. Boob tube full of this search.

From other prelim internet sources, the bule pickup was shot up and two women shot by "mistake".....police action. They are looking for an ex-cop that was fired for ratting on LA cops that abused arrested citizens......much more to follow I am sure. Boob tube full of this search.

deltamrey wrote: OK....here is a parallel take......We are not in a traditional declared war.....that is Congress never declared war on any nation state as I know the definition. ALSO in Viet Nam we were in an undeclared war......sort of a police action.

That given, a thought to ponder, IF we had had the tech as we do today, would we have put a hellfire up Janes rear guard ?? She was obviously an American citizen aiding our enemies.......extrapolate.....would we have sent drones to Canada to seek the citizen draft dodgers in their "protected" environs.........think it over.
AND would the AG have spun a memo CYA to protect Kennedy and Johnson (that is for sure IMHO).

Basically the President can justify anything the people let him get away with...........Germany circa 1935. OH......BTW gun control is aligned with drones........get it ??

Have to take issue with one of your statements here. We are fighting a declared war in Afghanistan, and we were fighting one in Iraq as well. Libya not so much. The president went to Congress and asked them to authorize the use of the Union's military to defend the interests of the Union. How that is different from a declaration of war, other than semantics, has never been clear to me.

Other than that, I see the parallels you are drawing and at first blush would have to say I find a certain level of agreement with them. An interesting thing to dwell on more to flesh it out with some further thinking, that's for certain.

To be clear......unless I can be corrected via referenced citation.....the last declared war (under the constitution by Congress) in the USA was WWII.....not Korea, not Nam, Not Gulf "War", not Iraq......NO NOT NOT.....Resoultion endorsing executive action after the fact has happened......but no declaration.

OH.....the fact that there is no "political will" simply means the people of the United States will not support the action under our constitution.......simply put.

The Congress has not gone to the people via a Declaration of War because there simply put is no support to do so since 1940.....Congress passes the buck to the President......and avoids. Can I use the word.......COWARDS ??

We didn't declare war against Iraq or Afghanistan, since we're up against factions and coalitions --- not countries.

Neither case is really a sovereign-to-sovereign conflict.

That's the problem with modern conflicts --- the borders don't define the sides.

Even in Yemen - what we're fighting against is a group of people within a country.

I actually think the POTUS could have got a war declaration against Afghanistan if he wanted after 9/11, but IIRC, declaring war opens up a huge can of worms nationally, insurance, etc.
And the hijackers were mainly from Saudi Arabia, not Afghanistan.