Condemning decisiveness

On the US assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki, Glenn Greenwald expresses concern:

What's most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting, but will stand and cheer the U.S. Government's new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the U.S. Government. Many will celebrate the strong, decisive, tough President's ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki -- including many who just so righteously condemned those Republican audience members as so terribly barbaric and crass for cheering Governor Perry's execution of scores of serial murderers and rapists: criminals who were at least given a trial and appeals and the other trappings of due process before being killed. 

Let me just say that I think this event, although regrettable in some sense, is a good thing, and I'm inclined to quietly applaud the president's approach on terrorism; furthermore, I think it irresponsible of Mr. Greenwald to make weak, flippantly devised comparisons between cheering Governor Perry's execution record and the assassination of a terrorist.

The fact that al-Awlaki was a US citizen is, frankly, beyond consideration. He was a terrorist, a murderer, and (although I hate to use the word here) an enemy of freedom. I don't love those enemies, and I don't yearn for them to be given the good grace and manners extended to those whose lack of innocence is still suspended in a state of doubt. Most of all, I don't believe in giving special privileges to terrorists who just happen to have been born in the United States.

This is a milestone, make no mistake. Given that President Obama has managed to eliminate the two greatest individual threats to US homeland security in just two years is something of significance, and we ought not to let anyone diminish the achievement. Increasingly, it seems that Obama is winning the war Bush never could, and continues to distance himself from a deeply unpopular president – a leader who faltered in shifting the momentum of a war which was initially moral, and transformed it into one in which torture was deemed appropriate. People of Mr Greenwald's opinion may posture all they wish, but the moral highground rarely accommodates progress of this kind. This event is a mark of progress toward safety and freedom, and we need to realise that.

I, for one, applaud the decisive attitude Greenwald appears to loathe in Obama, and would suggest that we actually need more dead enemies, not fewer. I'm also happy to have fulfilled his prophecy that those who 'righteously condemned' Republican audience members for cheering Perry's execution record would (he might suppose 'conversely') "celebrate the strong, decisive, tough President's ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki." I'm always happy to partake in such a celebration, and the exception that Greenwald takes in killing a terrorist simply because he's an American does little to deter me. Some have argued that it sets a dangerous precedent. Maybe – but only if you're a terrorist.

(Image: "President Barack Obama and retiring Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen seen before the president's remarks on the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki in Arlington," Pablo Martinez Monsivais, via The Daily Beast.)