People are outraged that the president has assumed the authority to assassinate anyone he determines to be a terrorist, without judicial review or congressional oversight, and even if the target is an American citizen. But the constitution does give the president the power to prosecute wars, and wars do involve killing people. The problem I have is that Congress has declared war on terror, whatever the hell that means. Will this war continue until we — as Bolling says — sign a peace treaty with the Concept of Terrorism? Or has 1984 finally come true and we are now in a state of perpetual war?
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War is declared on terror, and the whole earth (perhaps in future other planets) is battlefield.
As I posted comment on one other post, this debate of president assassinating individuals is just academic in nature devoid of any emotions. Since this force would be never used against any white/brown/black christians/atheists/jews/ and hence streets are empty. The president knows it, the republicans know it and the democrats know it. They all know killing a muslim, would not be an issue as no body really cares. After all, they did attack America on 9/11.
It’s interesting how the defition of ‘terrorist’ has expanded in scope over the past decade as well.
Everyone should read “The Thirteen American Arguments” by Howard Fineman. It covers a lot of topics, and the power of the Executive Office is one of them. Basically, Fineman points out that the POTUS was never meant to be more than an administrator with very limited powers, but that each and every president has added to the power of that office (even the founders themselves). Many of them have “unofficially” declared war, signed treaties, purchased land, made deals, or granted themselves power in direct defiance of the system laid down in the Constitution.
While Obama’s reach for power is alarming, and a little depressing, contextually it’s par for the course. After all, Obama’s new authority would not be nearly as alarming if not for the Patriot Act, which gave Bush and all future president’s the ability to spy on Americans free from oversight.