The Assassination of al-Awlaki and Citizen's Rights

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Salon.com has an excellent piece commenting on the recent murder of Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen by US forces. A known leader of al-Qaeda (and a legitimately dangerous man), al-Awlaki was nonetheless a US citizen who had not been indicted for any crimes, and was far from any fighting on the ground.

Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing comments:

"Whether or not al-Awlaki was a terrorist (something no court can determine now), this sets a new precedent: the US can assassinate its own citizens on presidential order without any due process or accountability."

This really is the "new reality" for American citizens, setting unequivocal precedent that a presidential order is all that is necessary for the execution of an American.

With the tremedously FUBAR implications of that new reality aside, al-Awlaki's death highlights a stark fact: it is the difficult choice of our time that we may need to be forced to decide between "better" security and the the very freedoms and protections that American citizens enjoy.

Are we willing to resist the justified fear of further terrorist attack and choose instead for a society that protects (or justly punishes) its people? Are we willing to be more vulnerable in exchange for doing the right things the right way?

Legality can be cumbersome sometimes. So can morality. But those difficult choices are the most important by far, because they are the ones that define us.

In al-Awlaki's case, it's too late. With one missile in the desert, we have made a martyr of a man who was by all evidences filled with hatred for the country he belonged to - a country that should have prosecuted him according to the laws that he broke.

Justice is not served by murder outside the law. We needed to do the right thing the right way, and we didn't.

Yes, it's too late for al-Awlaki.
Let's hope though, that it's not too late for you and me.