Who Decides

Richard C. Clarke has written a book entitled Sting of the Drone, which is excerpted by the RealClearDefense website. RCD shares a multi-page passage which describes in detail a meeting chaired by the President's National Security Advisor in which second level functionaries from the departments of State, Defense, Justice and Homeland Security plus intelligence types make decisions about which terrorists to kill via drone strikes.

This is real fly-on-the-wall stuff. We knew these decisions happened, now we know by whom, how, and what criteria are considered. President Obama is quoted as giving National Security Advisor Winston Burrell the following charge:

I don’t want to micromanage this stuff. Just make sure we do not get attacked again. Do what you have to do. Minimize the negative press, no torture, and hold down the collateral damage to an acceptable level, but err on the side of killing the bad guys. If we fuck up trying to kill bad guys, I will be fine. If we fuck up because we didn’t kill the right bad guy and he then kills a bunch of Americans, particularly in the homeland, then I get in trouble. Understood?

The clear inference: when in doubt, kill the sucker and a few of his radical pals. Few Americans object.