Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/case-drones-home-article-1.1287635#ixzz2NWFlrz5a
There were good reasons to object to John Brennan’s confirmation as CIA chief. But the administration’s refusal to handcuff America’s ability to defend itself by promising never, under any circumstances, to use a drone against American citizens in the U.S. is not one.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) filibustered Brennan’s nomination because, he believed, “no American should be killed by a drone, on American soil, without first being charged with a crime, without first being found guilty by a court.”
While Paul claimed to rely on our Constitution, in fact his position is contrary to what our Constitution provides and what our Founders intended. The Constitution declares its purpose is to “insure domestic tranquility (and) provide for the common defence” — both of which impose on our government the duty to provide security for this country.
Rendering the President unable to use whatever measures are then needed, including a drone, to prevent terrorist murders of our people, by an enemy who is a U.S. citizen, would handcuff our government’s ability to perform that function.
Alexander Hamilton, one author of the Constitution, and a primary advocate for its adoption, wrote in Federalist Papers No. 23 concerning “the care of the common defence” as requiring “powers . . . without limitation: Because it is impossible to foresee or define the extent and variety of national exigencies, or the correspondent extent of the means which may be necessary to satisfy them . . . for this reason no constitutional shackles can wisely be imposed on the power.”
