“The parallels to the Bush administration torture memos are chilling,” said Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “Those were unchecked legal justifications drawn up to justify torture. These are unchecked justifications drawn up to justify extrajudicial killing.”

We live in extraordinary times, with deadly technology at our disposal and fanatically committed enemies plotting violence against our people. The boundary between right and wrong is often blurred.

If I had to vote up or down on the use of drones to take out terrorists, I would vote “yes.” But I am deeply troubled by the right to kill claimed by any one leader, even our own.

Copyright © 2013 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.