Extrajudicial Killings

Just because the President of the United States orders the extrajudicial killing of someone does not make it right. It wasn't right when George W. Bush did it. It wasn't right when Bill Clinton did it. It isn't right when Barack Obama does it. We've become too comfortable, accustomed to the outrage — granted, it's difficult to sustain a heightened sense of moral outrage when the outrages never cease — and complacent about the law.

Dropping difficult subjects down the memory hole, however, does not necessarily make them go away, nor does rationalizing the abnormal into normality. Indeed, it's precisely such efforts on the part of U.S. authorities that are likely to galvanize international lawyers outside the U.S. to take matters into their own hands.