Two Sundays ago, I wrote that the U.S. government was tardy in offering condolences to the Charlotte family of U.S. citizen Samir Khan, who was killed in a drone attack in Yemen last month that targeted another U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki.
In the column, I suggested that we should ask questions about the precedent of a U.S. president authorizing an assassination of a U.S. citizen without a formal charge or trial - and without, essentially, any substantial outside checks on the decision. Although we might feel this decision was correct, should we trust that all presidents will make the correct decision, without checks?
I also wrote that although there is no defending Khan, who declared himself an enemy of the U.S. and died with another sworn enemy, can we feel sorry that parents lost a son they tried not to lose? Many of you thought no.
Washington Post columnist Marc A. Thiessen also disagrees. He believes no apology is necessary to the family.
Says Thiessen:
This is an outrage. The United States has no reason to offer “condolences” for the death of this self-proclaimed “traitor to America.” His role as an al-Qaeda propagandist alone justified his killing (much as America would have been justified in killing Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels during World War II).Peter St. Onge
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4 comments:
No one really cares what you think or the other "journalist" thinks. Got it?
Persons whose parents taught them sound values know that losing their son caused the man's parents indescribable grief. Although they lost their son long ago when he became programmed, perhaps they hoped that he would realize the errors of his thinking. We who feel their pain, pray for them and offer heartfelt condolences are United States citizens. Understandably, after thousands of Americans have lost their lives both at home and abroad fighting the hate-filled message of those terrorists, our government itself cannot express condolences.
Yet in Wikipedia I read about the man. Anwar Al-Awlaki was born in the United States when his Yemen father was studying here. He lived in the US during the first seven years of his life, followed by 11 years in Yemen. Al-Awlaki returned here to earn an engineering degree from Colorado State University. After receiving a master's degree in Education Leadership, he began studies toward a doctoral degree in Human Resource Development. After 9/11 he left the United States. Because of his fluent English and his blog, a Facebook page, and many You Tube videos, he was described as described as the "bin Laden of the Internet." He was the first U.S. citizen to be added to a list of persons approved for targeted killing by the CIA.
Obviously the United States government should not extend condolences.
Persons whose parents taught them sound values know that losing their son caused the man's parents indescribable grief. Although they lost their son long ago when he became programmed, perhaps they hoped that he would realize the errors of his thinking. We who feel their pain, pray for them and offer heartfelt condolences are United States citizens. Understandably, after thousands of Americans have lost their lives both at home and abroad fighting the hate-filled message of those terrorists, our government itself cannot express condolences.
Yet in Wikipedia I read about the man. Anwar Al-Awlaki was born in the United States when his Yemen father was studying here. He lived in the US during the first seven years of his life, followed by 11 years in Yemen. Al-Awlaki returned here to earn an engineering degree from Colorado State University. After receiving a master's degree in Education Leadership, he began studies toward a doctoral degree in Human Resource Development. After 9/11 he left the United States. Because of his fluent English and his blog, a Facebook page, and many You Tube videos, he was described as described as the "bin Laden of the Internet." He was the first U.S. citizen to be added to a list of persons approved for targeted killing by the CIA.
Obviously the United States government should not extend condolences.
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