Maybe there’s something wrong with me … but I doubt it.

I might be one of few Americans who can justify a drone strike that killed an American citizen who happened to be an al-Qaeda terrorist.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-memo-justifies-drone-hit-american-citizen-al-awlaki-n138431

The U.S. Justice Department has released a declassified version of a memo that validates the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born terrorist. He had been plotting against the United States of America. He was a traitor to his country. His death in the Yemen drone attack, which occurred in September 2011, has become a cause for civil libertarians who contend that the United States should not target an American citizen in its war against international terror.

Al-Awlaki was a very bad man. He deserved to die on the battlefield. He had taken up arms against the United States. He was an enemy combatant. My understanding of war is that enemy combatants become targets of the forces that oppose them.

“We believe DoD’s contemplated action against al-Aulaqi would comply with international law, including the laws of war applicable to this armed conflict and would fall within Congress’ authorization to use ‘necessary and appropriate force’ against al-Qaida,” the memo said.

The memo concludes, saying that al-Awlaki was “engaged in continual planning and direction of attacks upon U.S. persons from one of the enemy’s overseas basis of operations, the U.S. government does not know precisely when such attacks will occur, and a capture operation would be infeasible.”

“There are few questions more important than the question of when the government has the authority to kill its own citizens,” according to deputy ACLU legal director Jameel Jaffer.

My own feeling is that when one of those citizens takes up arms on the field of battle against his country, then he has answered the question himself. He becomes a target.