CHANGE: Drones Over Libya. “The US has now deployed armed drones over Libya, according to press reports. Drone systems have been operating as surveillance systems for weeks now, but acting on a NATO request, the US has now put up at least two weaponized drones in the Libya conflict. The logic of this move is inescapable. . . . Query whether this deployment of drones in Samantha Power’s War, wars of humanitarian altruism, will cement the acceptability of drones and targeted killing in conflict. Likewise the acceptability, and not just utility, of the CIA in using force when political reasons preclude military boots on the ground. If targeted killing and drones and CIA are okay in humanitarian adventures, they are okay in Pakistan and Afghanistan and wars in which the US has interests at stake. It is possible, but not persuasive, that wars of humanitarian intervention support a different set of rules for fighting and ‘jus in bello’ than regular wars, but that would defy the fundamental principle of the conduct rules of armed conflict, viz., that the rules are the rules regardless of the motive for fighting.”

UPDATE: From the comments: “Terrorists deserve trials… unless we summarily execute them with flying robot war machines. That’s special.”