re: #436 Obdicut

Rather than referring to someone else, why can’t you just state your objection in your own terms? Since EO12333 doesn’t define assassination, it’s not really satisfactory as a reference.

Obdicut, that’s a really annoying habit. You’ve got a habit of wanting ‘own words’ when people make reference to something they think makes the issue clear, and when they use their own words you want cites to support or clarify.

Besides, I DID supplement with my own word, or at least paraphrase. As you just said the EO didn’t make it clear, and I certainly didn’t link to what Reagan (or Carter or Ford before him) said. Instead I said (and notice I’m quoting): ” If you do them you have no moral ground on which to stand when others use them against you.”

And the “It’s easier” argument is really a non-starter. At best, it’s a slippery slope fallacy. At worst, it’s a counter-argument; in general, we want to use things at are easier.

No, we do not want to use things that are easier. By the way, slippery slope is not a fallacy, it’s an argument. It is a fallacy to use it in all cases, but in this case it is indirectly applicable.

Making things easier makes the slope slippery. Adding friction helps prevent that. The more undesirable the bottom of the slope, the more important friction becomes.

Is your argument just that it shouldn’t be the intelligence services using these drones, that it should be military and have the oversight military operations do?

Actually, close. I think it might be valid for intel to use armed drones but it should be done with significant oversight. See my posts above about the role of intel and counterintel.

Operation Phoenix in Vietnam. And I really am getting tired of you not paying attention to what I just said. I said that by some weights the leadership is legit in a war.

Let’s put a small example. We are notionally at war with al Qaeda. Is Hilda Solis, US Secretary of Labor, a legitimate target for assassination?

If we went to war with Iran, would she become a legitimate target for assassination?