Ron Paul Joins Dennis Kucinich to Demand Obama Drone Documents

Libertarian minded Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and liberal Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, would seem like an odd pair on any issue. However, as the Houston Chronicle reports, both oppose the use of drone strikes in the War on Terror.

Paul and Kucinich attempt to force release of drone documents

Paul and Kucinich, both of whom will be leaving Congress within weeks, have introduced a resolution designed to force the Obama administration to release legal documents that are being used to justify the use of drones to undertake targeted killings of Al Qaeda terrorist leaders, according to the Houston Chronicle. Thus far the Obama administration has resisted attempts to have these documents released. Paul and Kucinich hope to force the White House to turn over the documents to a House committee for examination.

Paul a longtime opponent of drone strikes

Paul, who has advocated an isolationist foreign policy, has been also an opponent of the use of missile-armed drones used to kill Al Qaeda leaders. In a speech published on the website AntiWar.com Paul suggested that drone strikes kill too many innocent civilians while attempting to take out terrorist leaders, thus inciting hatred of the United States in the Middle East and around the world. Paul also expressed concern about the use of drone for domestic surveillance on civil liberties grounds.

Paul suggested that the drone killing of Al-Awlaki might be grounds for impeachment

When Anwar Al-Awlaki, an Al Qaeda terrorist leader living in Yemen, was executed by a drone strike in 2011, Paul suggested that it might be grounds for the impeachment of President Obama, according to the Huffington Post. The reason Paul suggested this is that Al-Awlaki was an American citizen and therefore should have been arrested, charged, and prosecuted in the American justice system. Paul's view was not very widely shared among his fellow members of Congress, however.

The drone war

The use of drones as a weapon for targeted killing was started under the Bush administration, but was greatly expanded under the Obama administration, according to the New Yorker. There are actually two drone campaigns, one conducted by the military in war zones against terrorist targets, and the other, more controversial, conducted by the CIA in a variety of countries, some, Yemen and Pakistan, not technically war zones.

The Obama administration has found the use of drones a convenient way to take out Al Qaeda leaders as it does not render trained operatives at risk (the bin Laden mission was an obvious exception.) However, the use of drones has been criticized as taking the virtue and even honor out of war by making it too antiseptic. On the other hand, the tactic has been effective in denuding Al Qaeda of its leaders.

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Ron Paul Joins Dennis Kucinich to Demand Obama Drone Documents