Naked Self Promotion about Targeted Killing
27th December 2009
You are dealing with people who can be targeted, and it is not necessary, under the rules in effect, to make a decision about whether the person could be detained. You can shoot first. There is no affirmative duty to ask first if they want to surrender. In that case, the decision is not a serial one of decide whether you have an obligation to try and detain; and if it seems too dangerous then to strike to kill. You are legally permitted to strike to kill, without warning and without obligation to offer surrender. If that’s the case, and if the personal legal risks to you or your career, now or down the road, are as they are now, and disfavor interrogation or detention, then the incentive runs toward a targeted killing.