APKeaton wrote:
Obviously he had to kill a citizen to do that this time, but he did so with authorization from the US National Security Council and the judicial and legislative branches of the government.  The judicial branch had dismissed a case that was brought forward to prevent the targetted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki.  The legislative branch had passed the "Authorization for Use of Military Force Agaisnt Terrorists" Act.  Although this was a superfluous and uncessary move by the legislative branch in this case as al-Awlaki is clearly a combatant engaged in an armed struggle agaisnt the USA.  Under domestic and international law, the USA has a duty and a right to engage al-Awlaki in military combat.

The AUMF only gives the president the authority to use all "necessary and appropriate force" against those who he determines "planned, authorized, committed or aided" the 9/11 attacks. Obama has never claimed that Mr. Awlaki was responsible for 9/11.

The judicial branch never considered the case on its merits. The judge noted the case raised “stark, and perplexing, questions” about whether the president could “order the assassination of a U.S. citizen without first affording him any form of judicial process whatsoever, based on the mere assertion that he is a dangerous member of a terrorist organization.” But he rendered no ruling on the point, and dismissed the case on the grounds that Mr. Awlaki’s father did not have standing to sue. Your theory that Mr. Awlaki was "clearly a combatant engaged in armed struggle" is not clear at all since no evidence has ever been tested in court, as required by the 5th Amendment before any punitive action is taken.

All you're saying is that Obama's word is good enough for you, which marks you as an authoritarian even further to the right than the far-right counsel to Dubya, David Rivkin who said:
“I’m a huge fan of executive power, but if someone came up to you and said the government wants to target you and you can’t even talk about it in court to try to stop it, that’s too harsh even for me.”