Drones and strange bedfellows: Why neocons are showing Obama some love

If John Yoo or Dick Cheney had written it, the document would no doubt be less defensive in asserting executive powers. There might be less talk about "balancing analysis" and more of Constitutional prerogatives. But the Obama paper gets to the correct legal conclusion.... We've written before that this Administration should do more to capture and interrogate terrorists in order to prevent future attacks, rather than defaulting so often to drone strikes. But its drone warfare is legal and necessary to protect America. [Wall Street Journal]

And I do mean "king," because anyone who takes the time to read the leaked white paper will be struck by how ancient, how almost Shakesepearan are its concerns. For all the Obama administration's efforts to characterize "targeted killing" as a modern solution to a modern problem, the white paper suggests that its real quandary with regard to citizens who have taken up with the enemy is as old as power itself: How to eliminate them without being accused of murdering them.... These are the moral questions that the Constitution was written to address by means of a legal framework. The leaked white paper seems to address them in a different way, in a kingly way, in an almost pre-constitutional or perhaps post-constitutional way. [Esquire]

This is different from torture, where I do draw a bright line. Aside from the practical issues — it doesn't elicit solid confessions — there are clear legal and moral ones. We've signed international declarations that we will not torture. That's our word to the world. When we go back on that, everyone else can, and the result is chaos, chaos we created. But this is an internal matter. [That said,] it is definitely alarming that a president can arrogate to himself this kind of power, whoever the president is. And no, I would not be writing differently about this if the president were George W. Bush. [Daily Beast]

The reason drone strikes are popular? Because they are perceived to be effective in reducing the threat of terrorism without endangering American lives.... To be sure, making policy decisions simply based on what the public wants (or thinks it wants) is a dangerous game. But, it's also important to remember as the drone debate gains steam in Washington that there is little public appetite for an extended look at how unmanned attacks fit into our broader national security policy. Minds are made up on the matter. And, if the public has anything to do with it, drones are here to stay. [Washington Post]