As usual, foreigners at times read our situation better

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/is-it-ok-to-kill-americas-enemies/article1221302/

>>> One senses that, had the plan been approved by Mr. Clinton or Mr. Obama, 
>>> the response from the left side of Congress and the media would have been 
>>> quite different. In fact, Mr. Clinton did fire a cruise missile at a bin 
>>> Laden hideout during his term, and Mr. Obama has continued the Bush border 
>>> bombings. So what is wrong with a bit of low-tech state murder?

There is a deeply practical aspect to this question. The surgical
strike of an anonymous targeted killing leaves few others harmed as
long as martyrs are not created. But conventional wars can ruin
millions of lives.

Try a thought experiment on Iraq. Would not a dead Saddam Hussein have
been preferable to what the world has been through in that particular
American adventure? The other side says, “Targeted killings bring us
down to the level of our adversaries. Al-Qaeda may feel free to kill
us, by the thousands if they can, but we cannot act like them. We say
we are for freedom and due process and the rule of law. These things
do not permit state assassinations.”

This is a good moral debate, and it should be held. What one can say
for sure today is that Democratic triumphalism and the need to twist
the last inch of knife into Mr. Bush's political corpse may end up
hindering the very things Mr. Obama wants done.
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