"I do not say any of this as criticism of the administration’s growing reliance on remote-controlled drones in the killing of terror leaders. I support the policy. But targeted killing should not rest entirely within the secret discretion of our leaders. The law professor Kenneth Anderson, perhaps the leading academic expert on the legality of drone warfare, has been arguing for some time now that the United States, as the dominant user of drone attacks, should be developing norms to regulate their use. Not rules, says Anderson—he does not envision lawyers standing behind every console operator—but norms, a set of shared ethical understandings to help our leaders decide when the use of targeted killing is necessary and appropriate. I agree.
The right way to develop an ethical sense about the use of drones is through robust public debate. Alas, that task may be difficult, because the drone war tends to slide off the screen. When we have, in the argot, boots on the ground, the public pays keen attention to war, engaging in often spirited argument over rights and wrongs. But the drone war poses little threat to American forces, and the attacks are rarely reported unless some major figure is killed, or a missile goes off course and strikes a wedding."
This alone seems to indicate that not much separates Mr. Miniter from Mr. Carter, except in terms of their mutual assignments by their editor. Let us simply look at the 'ethical issue' of drone strikes and the issue of 'collateral damage', i.e. innocent civilian deaths, and the felt political necessities of empire and imperialist. Professor Anderson will develop 'norms' for drone attacks not specific policies, that might hinder, arguably restrict, military action, in the national interest. We can now consign Nuremberg and the whole set of proscriptions and imperatives, that it entailed, into the dustbin. And celebrate the sophistry of victors who will write the History of America, in the Age of Terror. Mr. Miniter and Mr. Carter have helped to make permanent that Golden Age of Endless War: we have already secured our economic decline.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_L._Carter
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