A question for anyone who is ok with the executive branch using drones

[mmonk]

to kill people anywhere in the world without due process of law:

If the leader of another country was dealing with a terrorist group and that leader believed an associate of that group was staying on the 4th floor of the Marriott on Times Square, would you be ok if he or she sent a drone down Broadway and fired a missile into the 4th floor of said Marriott?

[snooper2]

1. Only if our drones were broken

[Deep13]

2. Against killing civilians regardless.

The drones per se aren't the problem. It's that we are using them where we would not be able to get away with using manned aircraft or soldiers. Armed enemies don't get due process. Neither do American military personnel. There is simply a huge difference between war casualties and punishing civilians for a crime. But we should not be killing innocent third persons because they happen to be in the wrong hotel or whatever.

[The Straight Story]

3. Some here are fine with it, same people against the death penalty too I think

In a war, defending yourself? I am ok with doing what you need to do.

We have not declared war on any country and yet we are using weapons of war in many.

No trials, no evidence we allowed to see - just basically a few people in power saying 'trust me/us'

In SOME cases, I do. But when a few cases become many? Yeah, I kind of start having some doubts.

When tons of innocent people die and the 'guilty' people cannot be shown to be a direct threat against the US? I start to think maybe something might be amiss.

Yemen has admitted to covering up for the US when we have killed innocents, yet no one goes to jail.

Well, people smoking pot do, but then they are dangerous.

[OldDem2012]

4. Since we're playing "what if"....

....let's say we have an American working with an Al Qaeda group in Pakistan who is planning to explode a dirty bomb in New York City. Do you make the decision to use a missile from a drone to eliminate the group and the threat while they're still in Pakistan, or do you wait until they arrive in New York City before you read them their Miranda Rights and arrest them? Of course, that's assuming we can actually catch them before they carry out their plan.

[cbrer]

5. How can you make the moral leap

To war in general, and then start creating hypotheticals that could create moral dilemnas?

What if a UFO ran into the Empire State building with Saudis onboard?

Would you have a problem with us nuking Mars?