Five Hundred Words

If an American is specifically targeted by President Obama with a missile fired from a drone, and the press ignores it, does it make a sound? The President has taken it upon himself to draft his own guidelines for when it is appropriate to target American citizens on foreign soil. During his administration, a number of American citizens – and the unlucky individuals within the blast radius – have been killed in strikes authorized by the White House.

The reality is that traitorous Americans are going to engage in activity that threatens the US. I feel no particular sympathy for a dead terrorist that just happens to be an American by birth. In World War Two, a large number of Americans went to Nazi Germany to fight, and ended up being killed by GIs, bombed by the Army Air Corps or sent to the deep by the Navy. That’s what happens when you choose sides against your countrymen – your countrymen may kill you in the heat of battle. Continue Reading

President Obama’s executive order calling for the closing of Gitmo has given elements of our political class opportunity to let the world know how much they dislike violence, particularly torture. I say good for them. Violence is bad. So is torture.

In fact I think all sorts of things are terrible. Incarceration is horrible. Handcuffs are horrible. Getting shot is horrible. Nevertheless, under certain circumstances, these horrible things are less horrible than the alternative.

Searching a car is normally unacceptable unless you have probable cause and a warrant. Blowing up a building is normally unacceptable, unless it is reasonably believed to be full of enemy combatants. Shooting a man is normally unacceptable, unless that man is pointing a gun at you.

Following this logic then, there would be a set of circumstances where digging into a human being with a number two pencil might be acceptable if you reasonably believed there was a ticking atom bomb and the dude knew where it was hidden. Continue Reading