

U.S. acknowledges killing four Americans in drone strikes - speeder
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/23/us-usa-justice-holder-idUSBRE94L16K20130523

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rtpg
I've never understood this fixation on the nationality of people killed in
drone strikes. I get jurisdiction issues (blowing people up on American soil
is pretty iffy, since we could just arrest the guys anyways), but the Bill of
Rights isn't prepended by "only citizens get these rights". Inversely, I get
that the gov't should "try" to protect their citizens, if you've reached the
point to where you want to blow up some guys with million dollar missiles,
they must be in some serious business, and you must not have that many
alternatives. A blue passport shouldn't give them a free pass on that.

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speeder
I don't know what is more dreadful, a country that kill its citizens without
trial, or a country where their citizens (just look at the comments) think
this is a great idea and should be done more.

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trebor
Agreed. This is nothing less than assassination. Terrorists or not they need
to be tried and executed (if guilty) as traitors—not assassinated.

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squozzer
I used to be against drone attacks against US citizens. But then I asked
myself, "If Abe Lincoln had used drones at Gettysburg, would that have made
him a war criminal or unconstitutional assassin?" Maybe, but not for killing
Confederate forces. Who, even though they were rebels, did not actually lose
US citizenship.

