President Barack Obama willingly admits he dispatched CIA agents to kill an American and his teenage son and the son's American friend while they were in a desert in Yemen in 2011. He says he did so because the adult had encouraged folks to wage war on the United States and the children were just "collateral damage."
Did you know the U.S. government is using drones to kill innocent people in Pakistan? Did you know the Pakistani government has asked President Obama to stop it and he won't? Did you know Pakistan is a sovereign country that has nuclear weapons and is an American ally?
Can the president kill an American simply because that person is dangerous and his arrest would be impractical? Can the president be judge, jury and executioner of an American in a foreign country because he thinks that would keep America safe? Can Congress authorize the president to do that?
Five months after the CIA sought out and killed an American-born cleric and al Qaeda operative in Yemen, Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to explain how the U.S. can legally kill U.S. citizens on foreign soil.
Vice President Joe Biden said the Taliban are not our enemy. If so, it makes one wonder what all the killing is about.
Who knew keeping our enemies behind bars would be so controversial? The House of Representatives is slated to take up the 2012 funding bill for the Defense Department on Tuesday. It reaffirms that the United States is in a state of armed conflict with "al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces" and that the president has authority to "detain certain belligerents until the termination of hostilities."
Less than two weeks after U.S. special operations commandos killed Osama bin Laden, a resolution viewed as an expansion of the legal basis for the global war on terror is moving through Congress.
Just when Democrats thought the thorny issue of repealing a ban on allowing gays to serve openly in the military had been resolved, a Republican lawmaker reopened the debate by calling for more military voices to have a say if, when and how the ban is lifted.
