White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan gave a speech on Monday at the Woodrow Wilson Center in which he defended the power of the president to kill anyone anywhere in the world via drone strikes. NPR’s Talk of the Nation played a substantial excerpt from the speech on Tuesday.
But there are a few things Brennan didn’t say in his speech: most terrorists are of our own making, drone attacks have killed more civilians than terrorists, drone attacks are offensive acts of aggression, not defensive acts to actually defend against threats to the United States, the United States engages in extra-judicial murder.
