IT is not where a lot of my friends make a living; many of them are/were intel analysts (open source, meaning they do not do the classified stuff, they do large-scale cultural analysis that is the background to the classified reports; we all know the majority are not reading their work, hecne the problems) because language skills with a certain Middle Eastern language. And they will all tell you the same thing: every strike radicalizes more people, and is causing more problems than they intend to solve. They know this by the way through local media they are paid to read. Also every one I know from Yemen, and I know a few, will tell you the same thing as our government has progressively fucked up their country so bad no one sees straight. Agitating people in a lawless state, as you hint at, is only asking for desperate people to do desperate things.

But what do I know, this rationalizing logic (and to be fair it is not yours, it is the USG) is disgusting. But it works in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and worked so well in Iraq, yeah?

No, it did not. Strategy bad, implementation bad, and results bad. What a surprise.

The entire world is a battlefield in the war on terror, even "the homeland". Which means that they can kill anyone they want anywhere in the world via secret order using secret evidence with no oversight. And terror can never be defeated so the war is permanent. This is a dangerous bullshit war that will continue to destroy our way of life until it is stopped.

Ok then, then what about his 16 year old son? Another American citizen (born in Denver), killed two weeks later in a drone strike. Does killing teens jive with your idea of due process?

In Hedges v Obama [1], the trial court blocked the government's power to indefinitely detain. The ruling was immediately appealed and the trial court's decision was stayed. I take it from the government's rush to appeal that there are people are being detained right now that would have had to be released had the ban been upheld.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedges_v._Obama

>Padilla was ultimatey tried and convicted in a federal civilian court

You're OK with indefinitely detaining American citizens until the government slaps some charges on & convicts? Spooky.