Repost as OP: All this talk of "right to retaliate" and "insurgents" is just legalistic twaddle

[Benton D Struckcheon]

81. Obviously, you never heard of Godwin's Law.

As to the rest: drones are used mostly in Pakistan. I hate to break it to all of you, but Pakistan has been the problem all along. Pakistan knows, and we know, that we are at war with Pakistan; remember, bin Laden was found practically in walking distance of their version of West Point. If we really thought the Pakistani military was on our side, why would we send in the Seals when we could have just asked the Pakistanis to get him?
To ask that question is to answer it.
We know they harbor these guys. They know we know. Everyone pretends they're actually our allies, and the Pakistanis have, either when Al Qaeda oversteps their bounds, or when it's needed for PR, sent out soldiers to fight them. But the ISI and the Pakistani military establishment was known, right from 9/11 on, to be the real problem.
This has to do with the politics of the place: the Taliban was Pakistan's ally. The tribes fighting the Taliban were and are allied with India. That's all there is to that.
In the real world, the US <> Nazi Germany. But the US has real enemies, Pakistan among them. This is the least bloody way to fight them and Al Qaeda.