It's important to note that the kind of 'terrorism' being fought here is in fact a war and thus geopolitical. First, jihad means holy war. Second, we are in a

It's important to note that the kind of 'terrorism' being fought here is in fact a war and thus geopolitical. First, jihad means holy war. Second, we are in a 'war on terror', where we have deployed our militaries to neutralize and kill tens of thousands of people. If you think these people were terrorists that had not yet ever attacked anyone - "preterrorists" - then you suggest that the United States and allies have the right to be judge, jurer and executioner on people's intentions, and have the right to indiscriminately kill. But if you say they are soldiers, or factional forces, then the ethics and norms of war applies and it becomes acceptable for us to kill these people in mass, whether they have ever killed someone before or not. Third, the uniting of forces in the Middle East against Israel and the mandates of the West (who in there eyes differ only in label and not in function from colonialists) have close to a century old history now of being an area of proxy war between other nations. During and after the first world war as punishment and destruction of the Ottoman empire and in the establishment of British control and extraction of resources from the region, and in the development of an Israel, and via the Sykes-Picot agreement the redrawing of boundaries to keep the area unstable and divided. During and after the Second World War as a proxy area of influence of the League of Nations and the USSR. During the Cold War between the USSR and NATO and today between Russia's Syria, a historically divided Egypt, and NATO's Israel. The 'terrorist' label being targeted is in fact a type of guerrilla fighter, a soldier that is potentially recruitable to a United Arabia that has historically hated its occupation by the West. A soldier who is more likely to attack somewhere at home than even attempt to leave and do violence in a Western country. We do not drone strike any old guerrilla fighter, however. We drone strike the ones whose politics and infighting, at the current instance, are counter to the hopes and dreams of US foreign policy. Those Arabs who learn how to make homemade bombs that are against the Assad regime, for example, are absolutely allowed, even encouraged, to live.