You have a point, but the issue isn't so much that it's extra bad because Americans are more valuable but because we're all supposed to be protected by the law we so desperately hail as the greatest to ever grace mankind. Americans expect a certain level of legal protection and due process because the Constitution dictates it. Not only this, but there is something like an invisible line that everybody fears never gets crossed when it comes to wartime activity, and the line is drawn between who is vulnerable and who isn't. People want to believe the government exercises the utmost discretion and has access to the most advanced intel, making these decisions easier for us to swallow when the rationale is clouded in secrecy than when it's made public and sounds far too vague and human to be acceptable. It's not a matter of increased distaste for drone strikes so much as it is increased vocalization of that distaste. People see drones as a way of minimizing casualties both foreign and domestic. I don't think it's as nefarious as it seems. We see constant feeds of Islamist extremists bombing schools, raping, killing and otherwise stringently oppressing women, shooting children in the head for promoting education and talking about strange gods rewarding insane behavior. I'm not surprised people have become this detached from this war and its overseas ramifications. It seems to have no real direct impact on us save for the families of the soldiers and we'd like to keep it that way, so we use drones to minimize human involvement in something this dirty and impractical. I may be liberal, but I don't necessarily oppose drone strikes. I oppose them without proper evidence and would only support them in extreme situations. If they can be used to stop an imminent and obvious threat, then I find myself hard-pressed to oppose them. But that's not really what's happening, and I think people are beginning to catch on. It's just a shame that it took "American citizen" in the legal rationale to perk up peoples' ears.Quoting Sven (view post)