Did Attila the Hun have Kill List Tuesdays?

Dear Mr. President,
The CIA unleashed! Brennan’s in charge. Bring on the drones! Bring on the assassins! We’re off to the Dark Side! Sunday, Hellfire missiles killed 2 men on horses in the mountains of Waziristan. Or maybe they were on a motorcycle. Or maybe there were 3 men. No one but the assassins know who their victims were; the Hellfires disintegrated them. Or maybe it was a ‘signature strike’ and even the assassins don’t know who they were; they just looked suspicious. But whatever, they were military age (or not) and an imminent threat to the U.S. of A. (or not), but no big deal, the president’s got their back. Then there’s the 29-year-old Kandahar University student, Abdul Qayum, snatched off the campus Saturday morning when 2 pickups filled with armed men rolled up, they grabbed him, tied his hands behind his back, put a hood over his head and drove him to a U.S.-run prison where he was beaten and interrogated for almost 12 hours until Hamid Karzai personally intervened and got him released. The U.S. military denies responsibility, the CIA isn’t talking, but it’s clear that the armed thugs in the trucks were ‘counterterrorism forces’ trained and under the control of the CIA. And it wasn’t the first time students have been snatched off the campus by these guys. But no matter, the president’s got their back even if it was bad timing, another arrow in Karzai’s quiver of complaints. We’re back in the Dark Ages, Mr. President, pre-Magna Carta, pre-habeas corpus, back to when the King’s word was law and there were no checks on power; when he could lock up anyone he chose indefinitely, declare anyone an enemy of the state and order their execution. (Did Attila the Hun have Kill List Tuesdays or was that an unnecessary nicety?) Not that long ago we presumed someone innocent until proven guilty to a jury of their peers, with evidence and legal representation and following certain rules of law; only then could they be imprisoned or executed by the state. How have we gone back a thousand years so quickly? Become modern-day terrorists striking suddenly and without warning from the sky? Except for the technology there is little difference from the lawless times of the 5^th century and the lawless times of today. In spite of all those secret memos and twisted interpretations of law, blatant injustice is still blatant injustice and the dead are still the dead, and you, Mr. President are no better, no more moral or enlightened than any of the monsters of history.