First, thank you to JMM for educating me on the laws and legal aspect of the debate as I am not well versed in the legalities. My stance on killing a foreign terrorist in a foreign country is multifaceted:

1. What is the intelligence value gained by conducting a kill/capture operation versus intelligence lost by conducting a drone strike versus a clandestine/covert operation versus continuing to gather intelligence if left alone (this has to be debated extensively based upon potential of future lives lost)?

2. What is the risk versus gain in conducting an operation versus a drone strike? Is the gain worth losing lives over?

3. What are the political sensitivities to conducting an operation versus a drone strike versus other clandestine/covert means?

4. What are the 2nd and 3rd order effects associated with the aforementioned operations?

Post education regarding the drone strikes I have learned my viewpoint is more towards the policies and decisions associated with the drone strikes of US citizens not the legalities surrounding the drone strikes. I take issue when the decision is made to kill a US citizen in a foreign country with a drone strike. In turn, another decision is made to conduct an operation to capture a non US citizen (Nazih Abdul-Hamed Nabih al-Ruqai'I) in a foreign country (Libya) in order to bring the individual to the US for trial.

Taking into account the political workings among countries as to what kind of operations are "authorized", this latest operation in Libya has Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan calling al Libi's capture a "kidnapping" and demanding that U.S. authorities "provide an explanation" for the raid.

I do not intend nor want this thread to be hijacked with what will follow, just want to express why I have the issue I do with the policies and/or decisions regarding drone strikes against US citizens. The willingness to risk American lives to capture a foreign terrorist to bring him to America in order to afford him the same legal rights in a court of law in America as an American citizen is not afforded to an alleged terrorist who is US citizen in a foreign county. (I understand the trial process remains in a messy debate, hence not wanting to hijack the thread.)