In light of the recent President’s decision to use a drone strike resulting in the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, who was one of the most successful terrorist recruiters in the world, former Vice President Dick Cheney has responded by saying that Obama owes an apology to the Bush Administration. The drone strike has also killed an American citizen, Samir Khan who was a programmer for Al Qaeda, as well as two other passengers. Dick Cheney has criticized the president as he feels it was hypocritical for Barack Obama to suggest that the enhanced interrogation techniques used under president Bush’s administration made them ” walk away from America’s ideals,” while having the Obama administration authorizing drone strikes that have resulted in the deaths of two Americans “without due process”.

In my opinion it is non humanitarian to authorize drone strikes that resulted in death of terrorist suspects without due process. Suspects must be tried and their guilt must be proven before any course of actions is to be taken. Both the enhanced interrogation techniques by the Bush administration and the drone strikes under Obama’s authorizations are unjust methods that directly violate human rights of suspects. In addition drone strikes result in deaths of innocent civilians, and intervene in the sovereignty of other nations; therefore these methods must be banned from practice.

President Obama’s speech on interrogation techniques:                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPpXIhoZVB0&feature=relmfu

Video detailing the drone strike:   http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/10/01/starr-al-awlaki-killed.cnn

Work Cited:

“Cheney: Obama Should ‘correct’ Criticism of Bush’s Anti-terror Tactics – CNN.com.”CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. 22 Nov. 2011. <http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/02/politics/cheney-obama-terror/index.html?hpt=hp_t2>.