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"In-theater military target" is a lazy set of adjectives and nouns for addressing this situation. The "theater" in the Global War on Terror is the entire globe

by thwest 14y ago

"In-theater military target" is a lazy set of adjectives and nouns for addressing this situation. The "theater" in the Global War on Terror is the entire globe. The United States is not at war with Yemen. Abdulrahman was not even alleged to have engaged in "military" conduct, merely being a propagandist. He was not a "target", he was collateral damage of a strike on someone else. This is not a heated battlefield death. The nature of war is shifting and using aggressive global militarism as an excuse to handwave around the denied due process of a 16 year old US citizen is disturbing.

tptacek 14y ago
Abdulrahman wasn't targeted. He was traveling with someone who was very much targeted: his father, who pulled his son out of safety in the US to live in a war zone under the threat of airstrikes.
- thwest 14y ago
  His father was killed several days prior. Yemen is not a war zone; the US is not at war with Yemen. Sins of the father do not pass to the son.
  - tptacek 14y ago
    You're right; it was Ibrahim al-Banna that was targeted.
harshreality 14y ago
The entire globe is not on the Department of State's travel advisory list. Different countries are on it for different reasons, but it shouldn't take an international relations expert to figure out that traveling to certain parts of the Middle East or Africa puts you at risk, not only due to native conflict but also due to U.S.-launched drone strikes, if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, or associating with the wrong people. Is there any place the U.S. is conducting drone strikes that's not on the list? http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_1764.html