Courage During Wartime

This is about a week or two late - all the discussion of illegal extralegal drone strikes that were prompted in part by the Brennan-for-CIA confirmation hearings occurred in that distant past (in journalism time) - but I saw too many great posts about drones, torture, and the all-encompassing war on terror in general. Here they are, with the money quotes:

• Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, A Republic Demands Courage From Its Citizens. Conor quotes Jim Manzi of National Review, who calculates the risk of death to individuals should a 9/11 event occur annually at 0.001%: "To demand that the government "keep us safe" by doing things out of our sight that we have refused to do in much more serious situations so that we can avoid such a risk is weak and pathetic. It is the demand of spoiled children, or the cosseted residents of the imperial city. In the actual situation we face, to demand that our government waterboard detainees in dark cells is cowardice."

• Ta-Nahesi Coates, The Atlantic, The Art of Infinite War: "The president is anti-torture -- which is to say he thinks the water-boarding of actual confirmed terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was wrong. He thinks it was wrong, no matter the goal -- which is to say the president would not countenance the torture of an actual terrorist to foil a plot against the country he's sworn to protect. But the president would countenance the collateral killing of innocent men, women and children by drone in pursuit of an actual terrorist. What is the morality that holds the body of a captured enemy but not the body of those who happen to be in the way?"

• The always-excellent Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, At Least We're Not Measles: "Welcome to the honor of American citizenship. Should we replace E Pluribus Unum with We Don't Kill as Many Children as Measles?"