Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Military Drone Attacks Are Not 'Hostile'

Posted by Soulskill on from the napalm-hugs-and-frag-grenade-kisses dept.

sanzibar writes "Not satisfied with the legal conclusion of the DOJ, the Obama administration found other in-house lawyers willing to declare a bomb dropped from a drone is not 'hostile'. The strange conclusion has big implications in determining the President's compliance with the law. If drone strikes are in fact hostile and the Libyan campaign continues past Sunday, he may very well be breaking the law."

2 of 892 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Of Course Drone Attacks Are Hostile by jhoegl · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah, doesnt that basically give an open window to terrorists and Iran?
    WTF!

  2. Re:"Not hostile" by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's the natural continuation of the long-existing slippery slope. First they stopped the use of the term "war" (to remind, the US has last officially used the term "war" in 1942 - neither Korea nor Vietnam nor Afghanistan nor Iraq were "wars"). The next logical step is to excise any mention of violence whatsoever. Conveniently, this also removes the need to authorize it.

    In the long term, though, I suspect that this moment - and not all the other Obama's blunders - will end up in history as the marking moment of his presidency. Even Bush asked (and received) authorization to use force from the Congress - albeit with a lot of deception and outright lies. Obama pretty much says he doesn't care for one, and it's his way or the highway.

    Frankly, waging war in explicit denial of the parliament would be grounds for immediate impeachment in pretty much any other country. How does that normally work in US?