Lovely Pandora

Yet, as the United Nations has warned, drone strikes are at the heart of a contentious, clandestine American policy of “targeted killings” — including that of Osama bin Laden earlier this year by U.S. special forces — that would lead to anarchy if other countries were to claim the same sweeping authority to target people anywhere, at any time. That worry is feeding demands for agreed-on rules of the road.
~ from Edging Toward Anarchy With Drones, an editorial from the Toronto Star ~

Of course, what the editorial staff from the Toronto Star has failed to factor in is the exceptionalism of the United States of America. We don't follow no stinking rules, we dictate 'em!

It is this sort of "cowboy mentality" that's going to land us and others in a heap of trouble one of these days. You see, when your team fails to live up to shared standards or refuses to follow any rules, it becomes that much more likely that your opponents won't either! Why should they?

And so, because the US now favors enhanced interrogation/torture, our soldiers and citizens who are captured by malevolent forces face the specter of being tortured. Because the US now favors targeted assassinations of whomever the president decides, we shouldn't be surprised if some of our leaders become targets as well.

One of these days -- whether here or abroad -- we will find drone-like aircraft shooting at us. (We could be targeted by our own government, but that's a subject for a different post.) We will complain loudly and decry the inhumanity of it all. If we can ascertain who is responsible or else find a convenient scapegoat, we'll then go off to bomb the hell out of them.

But since we've opened Pandora's box, we really shouldn't be surprised when Pandora comes to visit us.