Where's Trayvon Martin level of outrage for Obama's due-process-free assassinations?

Obama forced him to say what he said?

 

I would hope its important to all of us.

 

He wasn't executed. He was killed in a military action while actively involved with a group taking military violent action against the United States. That's true for him just as it was for the tens of thousands of confederate soldiers who took up military action against the United States in the civil war and were killed in military combat and not given a trial.

 

Well, that or joining a terrorist organization, evading arrest, and inciting violence against the US. It's a process that was started by Bush by creating a very broad-based, neverending "war on terror", continued & expanded by Obama, and codified into law by both parties of Congress.

But regardless, I would suggest that this has been US policy for long before now. If we found a US citizen advising/assisting Hitler in Germany, I suspect he would be bombed/shot/killed as part of the war rather than making any attempt to arrest him. And I don't think there would have been any due process there either.

 

What is the relevance to whether he was involved in planning attacks? Do foot soldiers not count as Al Qaeda members? If we find an AQ training camp, are their trainees not eligible to be attacked unless they are leaders?

 

involved means that he joined al-qaeda and was working for them against the United States. Planning attacks doesn't really enter into it. He published articles advocating killing civilians in western nations that were at war with Islam. If someone joined the confederacy but didn't plan attacks and instead worked recruiting soldiers for the confederacy but was killed when their confederate headquarters were blown up by a cannon ball, it wouldn't be a problem.

 

I don't see a particular point in re-hashing this again, but I will say that I side with hightop.

Carry on.

 

I don't advocate the govt. assassinating US citizens. I don't believe they are empowered with the right to do that, and that it would go against the rule of law and due process.

I also don't believe that if a citizen joins a group militarily engaged against the United States and they are killed in a military action by the United States that that is in anyway wrong.

The U.S. did not have to put each confederate soldier on trial before every battle in the Civil War. It's the exact same thing with Awlaki.

 

Perhaps "outrage" isn't the right term but 'importance" is better. The Zimmerman case is very important to me because I have a professional interest in it but overall to the World and the US the assassination program is more important.

 

I don't think people should look too far into Awaliki's particular case, rather its a matter of the process that led to the decision that matters.... 1) You have 'death panels' that decide the killing (president is informed about it and he can veto to say no, or else they carry on) 2) There is no judicial review. 3) It's all top secret, there is no transparency involved.

 

Many of you are still mixing up the criminal justice process with the military process. We are not required to have due process and a trial to shoot someone on the battlefield.

Where the battlefield begins and ends in a global war on terror is where the real problem is.

 

I think this is fair. It's why I object to Awlaki's death being termed an assassination. It was a military strike against a group that has engaged militarily against the U.S. The citizenship of those involved in that group doesn't really matter.

It's why on the principle I think am on the side of rhad and hightop. But I don't think the killing of Awlaki violates that principle at all.

 

I don't understand. The level of outrage comes from the people who demonstrably object to what's happened. If you object to the assassination of Awlaki, get yourself a sign and go out on the street like the Trayvon demonstrators. It doesn't make much sense to ask other people to show outrage when you don't yourself care enough to get up off your ass. Be the change you want to see in the world.

 

Exactly. They need a new poster child.

 

Except due process isn't an issue regarding Martin since Zimmerman isn't a cop. If anything the outrage seems to be that the SPD are being too deferential to Zimmerman's rights as opposed to carrying out a fuller investigation.

Bully for you!