Obama And Collateral Damage

Regarding "Critics blast memo on U.S. drone attacks on citizens" (Wednesday Nation page A5), the argument advanced mostly by outraged liberals on this subject has been that American citizens who perform treasonous acts overseas cannot be punished without "due process", as if homegrown terrorists are entitled to all the rights of citizenship even if they take up arms against the United States.

 

I would submit to you that the minute any citizen conspires with foreign enemies against the United States that they immediately sacrifice all rights of citizenship, and should be treated as foreign combatants.  Beyond that, it makes no sense to cloak American citizens in some mantle of constitutional rights when they wage war against the U.S. overseas.  Were that the case, Al Qaeda could use American traitors as human shields against drone strikes, just by having them hang around. 

 

But, as so often is the case with these hyper-sensitive pundits, they miss the real human rights outrage of the Obama Administration's vastly expanded drone  program: the death or maiming of hundreds and perhaps thousands of innocent foreigners who had the misfortune of being near a terrorist when the missile struck.  It seems as if these Innocents ought to have just as many "rights" to life and liberty as American Jihadists.

 

Pete Smith

Cypress