# Court: White House has no legal duty to justify killing Americans abroad with drone strikes **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 3, 2013, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978 "2013-01-03T17:36:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978/261 "2013-02-05T17:39:24Z")
> [@Condescending\_Robot](#): > > This is one of the most honest self-appraisals of how Democrats see Obama to ever make it onto this board! If by “honest” you mean “superficially similar to the tiresome Republican caricature of Democrats who see Obama as a ‘messiah’,” then you’re dead-on as usual. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978/262 "2013-02-05T17:52:36Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Drone strikes are obviously a blunt instrument. Same with air strikes. There is simply no way that, even if they wanted too, the military could pop down and ask for your papers and hold off on it’s strikes because you happened to be an American. If you are with a group of folks suspected of being with AQ or the Taliban, and you are in the war zone or in one of the countries where these folks are hiding, then you are at risk at any time of something like this happening, whether you are an American or you are a Pakistani or Afghani. If the innocent civilians who happen to live there where these assholes are congregating are at risk, then you have no rights as an American to whine about being at equal risk…after all, these folks LIVE there and in most cases they have few options as too whether or not AQ or Taliban schlubs are in their village or town and thus are targets for these strikes. I agree with Bricker…this was the right call for the administration to make, and the drone strikes have been one of the most effective tools we’ve had in this conflict. It’s taken a lot of guts for Obama et al to stick to this, despite a lot of whinage from the left, and it’s one of the reasons I voted for him again in his second term. He is making the tough calls, and foreign policy wise I have little to complain about wrt the calls he’s made. You voted for Obama on his second term because you are a conservative and you correctly perceived that Obama is a conservative too. ---
**Author:** ![NonaSequitur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f1d935/32.png) [@NonaSequitur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NonaSequitur)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978/263 "2013-02-12T01:44:32Z")
I posted this in the other drone thread, but this is an interesting thought experiment: [Should an armed drone be dispatched to kill Christopher Dorner?](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/11/chris-dorner-drones-lapd) Drones make it so easy to kill, that perhaps one day in the future after we’ve become accustomed to the rationale, they could start being used in this country. Like tasing a supect, rather than subduing with force, they would make it quite easy to take someone out, without risking the lives of law enforcement… ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978/264 "2013-02-12T02:14:51Z")
> [@NonaSequitur](#): > > I posted this in the other drone thread, but this is an interesting thought experiment: [Should an armed drone be dispatched to kill Christopher Dorner?](http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/11/chris-dorner-drones-lapd) > > Drones make it so easy to kill, that perhaps one day in the future after we’ve become accustomed to the rationale, they could start being used in this country. Like tasing a supect, rather than subduing with force, they would make it quite easy to take someone out, without risking the lives of law enforcement… Yeah, except they DO have a way of killing innocent women and children in droves. Can’t say that will prove popular here. ---
**Author:** ![NonaSequitur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f1d935/32.png) [@NonaSequitur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NonaSequitur)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978/265 "2013-02-12T02:24:31Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Yeah, except they DO have a way of killing innocent women and children in droves. Can’t say that will prove popular here. Of course not. But I thought asking the question would get some folks to see how this policy could be problematic. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978/266 "2013-02-12T02:37:20Z")
> [@NonaSequitur](#): > > . . . Should an armed drone be dispatched to kill Christopher Dorner? . . . Kill him, no. But it might be a useful asset in obtaining his surrender. If a drone could flush him out, thus sparing anyone the risk of being in his line of fire, wouldn’t that be a good thing? ---
**Author:** ![NonaSequitur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f1d935/32.png) [@NonaSequitur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NonaSequitur)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978/267 "2013-02-12T02:44:34Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > Yeah, except they DO have a way of killing innocent women and children in droves. Can’t say that will prove popular here. Speaking of innocent women and children: [Incomplete list of children killed by drones](http://abagond.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/obama-cries-for-white-children/) I think the number one issue with drones is that it makes it too easy to get involved in too many countries. We’re already using them in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, etc. Mobilizing for war, even for the most well armed country in the world, used to be a natural check. With drones, we can hit whenever, wherever. I can see this being used for the next enemy du jour. I can see this being used to take out leaders of oppositional groups/ countries that don’t necessarily pose a (true) imminent threat, but who are determined to be contrary US interests. Of course the CIA has always been involved in these kinds of operations. But now there is no pretense of following any sort of international law/ standards. Anyways, I’m sure all of this has been mentioned above… Also, I do not trust the government to have the power to determine which American citizen should die sans due process. Not at all. Not with our history. ---
**Author:** ![NonaSequitur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f1d935/32.png) [@NonaSequitur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NonaSequitur)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978/268 "2013-02-12T02:46:42Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Kill him, no. But it might be a useful asset in obtaining his surrender. If a drone could flush him out, thus sparing anyone the risk of being in his line of fire, wouldn’t that be a good thing? But that’s what the article is asking. He’s practically confessed on Facebook. He’s made plain his intention of taking out the family members of cops on his list. And if he’s cornered, he’ll most certainly shoot. So… ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978/269 "2013-02-12T03:04:04Z")
In the meantime, the Administration has [agreed to release the classified version of the memo to the Congressional Intelligence Committees](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/us/politics/obama-orders-release-of-drone-memos-to-lawmakers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0). A small step in the right direction, as the ACLU put it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-white-house-has-no-legal-duty-to-justify-killing-americans-abroad-with-drone-strikes/645978.md?page=13)