Well, folks, here we go again.
For the second time in very recent memory, a terrorist has been killed by U.S. armed forces, thus striking a "severe blow" to Al-Qaeda and allegedly further weakening its threat to the American people. And once again, the cheers of the populace are heard in the land.
The problem this time around is not that we invaded the territory of another country and killed a bad guy without their knowledge, but that the person we bumped off wasn't Saudi or Pakistani, but an American citizen.
And, as was the case after Osama bin Laden's demise, I'm annoyed.
Again, I have to rise in indignation, not for the death of someone who was apparently dead set on wiping out as many Americans as possible, but for the incredible insult to our Constitution by saying that this was another instance of American Justice.
The Founding Fathers of the United States of America, for whom I have the deepest respect, did not consider political assasination an American value, let alone the killing of a U.S. citizen for the crime of advocating violence or, for that matter, treason, without something called a trial. Remember trials? That thing with a jury, a judge and lawyers on both sides - just like on the TV - remember? This is how American justice operates. Anything else is phony. Justified? Maybe in the Wild West or on B-rated television shows, but not anything I can find in the governing documents of my country.
Sure, we've heard the arguments for political murder. If we had put bin Laden on trial, he would have been a martyr and possibly attracted a lot of weak-minded people to his side. If we hadn't bumped off Salvador Allende in Chile, he might have led the Chileans to the left like Castro did after our efforts to prop up Bastista fell apart. Political murder was fine in Nicaraugua and El Salvador because "vital American interests" were at stake and, if those whom President Reagan called "freedom fighters" slaughtered a few nuns whom they thought were too humanitarian, well, that's the way the cookie crumbles and you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. But killing an American citizen? Isn't this wrong?
Let's be honest. The world isn't any worse off with Anwar Al-Awaki dead. In fact, the country is probably safer. But I maintain the ground on which the country is based is a little weaker, it's foundation shakier. If we can kill somebody who hates us, then all we have to do is find somebody who can pick out enough somebodies and let 'er rip. Muslims? Well, there are almost a billion and a half of them, but that would just make them easier to find. Lefties? The woods are full of 'em. We've already had a shot at the Jews, the Blacks, the Indians and the Irish, but there'll always be some other group that might possibly be a threat. You just have to look for them.
What a lot of people don't seem to be able to separate is what makes (or at least made) us different from many other countries. We're supposed to be guided by law, not revenge. If this isn't true any longer, then the least we can do is stand up and admit it. When President Obama claimed in his speech on 9/11 that the United States was united, I wondered what he had been smoking. In my 81 years, I've never seen us more divided, nor more unsure about what our democracy really means. There are many of us, I think, who would junk the whole thing in the name of safety or security or a job or decent medical care for the kids or just a square meal. We've seemed to have put a price tag on everything else, so why not liberty?
So Anwar Al-Awaki is dead. Fine. But I think we should ask what else died with him. It could be what he was fighting to defeat - the soul of America.