He didn't make it any more legal than it was before. As a military matter it's always been legal as long as there's a valid military justification behind it. Wh

He didn't make it any more legal than it was before. As a military matter it's always been legal as long as there's a valid military justification behind it. What Obama has done is to take advantage of the increased ability to remotely use military force to avoid having to send in ground troops or fighter-bombers to accomplish the same goal. It has precedent all the way back to the Clinton administration (if not farther, I'm just going by my own memory), when Bill Clinton authorized cruise missiles to be used against "terrorist training camps" at least a couple of times. Actually, there was a time when the U.S. used military force against its own citizens in a legal, but extrajudicial fashion: The Whiskey Rebellion (which even occurred on U.S. soil). There were at least no direct battle fatalities as a result, but that was due to the fact that the insurgents gave up.