Is James Bond, or why not Coq Rouge, a bad guy?

Obama driver hårdare linje än Bush - DN.se: "”Denna mordpolitik upphäver principen om att alla är oskyldiga tills de har dömts. Då förvandlar sig regeringen till utredare, polis, åklagare, domare, jury och bödel - allt i ett.”"

It is of course not an easy moral question to give some people the right to kill. However, if you start with the drone attacks mainly in the areas close to the Afghanistan border in Pakistan, where conventional warfare is almost impossible due to the expected losses, they can hardly be called murders. They take place as part of an ongoing war and care has recently been taken to limit collateral damage by using smaller bombs. These attacks can save many more lives than they take.

I think it is a little unfair to just blame Obama for the use of drones. Because they increase security for all troops involved in the Afghan war, including the Swedish troops. Per Jönsson is writing an article where he tries to moralize from a position of virtue but Sweden is part of the war and is thus fighting also Iran for example due to their proxy warfare. It was only the representatives from the US, UK and France that left the room when Ahmadinejad spoke the other day in New York on the NPT conference.

Arguments have been made against the use of drones since they are quite demoralizing for people thus attacked. This would in turn make the risk for retaliation in for example America higher. Like the recently aborted Times Square bomber. However, conducting war in foreign lands always carry this risk. I see the drones as a logical development of warfare when the war has the character of a policiary action. You don't risk the lives of pilots when dealing with bad men. Shooting down airplanes has apparently become quite easy. It is not risk free though as the suicide attack on several CIA drone operatives demonstrated not so long ago.

Targeted killings is a little more difficult area. Like torture of prisoners it would be something that should not be used. However, I judge it a little different than torture because it is directed against people that are more high profile. More obvious villains. I think targeted killings can be used in a war against terrorism. Even if policiary in character, we are not talking about the average burglar or murderer.