As I understand it, the blowing up of a ship by the U.S. military when it was thousands of miles out at sea was justified by saying that those eleven people on board might have been transporting drugs to America, and were therefore attacking the United States. That was the reason given, even though the ship was actually trying to flee at the time.
One takeaway here is that if you invoke the rules of war in any situation, then you have no need to worry about niceties such as due process. Therefore you never need to think about the possibility that you may have just sent 11 innocent people to the bottom of the sea.
A certain U.S. president once said “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters”. Now I realize that under the current rules of engagement, this might actually happen.
He could simply shoot you, and claim that he did it because you were running drugs, and were therefore a wartime enemy of the United States. Afterward, who would people believe? The president of the United States, or a dead person who is no longer around to defend themself.
From now on I would like a heads up whenever that man is scheduled to visit New York City. Just so I know to stay away from Fifth Avenue.