Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) adamantly defended the U.S. government's drone usage Tuesday at a hearing entitled "Drone Wars: The Constitutional and Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killing."
Count me in for reforming the system, but count me out from turning war into a crime, Graham said. Once someone is designated an enemy of the United States, it no longer has to be a fair fight.
"If you're contemplating conferring the power from the Commander-in-Chief to a bunch of unelected judges to make wartime decisions, count me out," Graham said. "That would be to me a breath-taking overstepping, and quite frankly unfair to the courts. Because if there's a situation where they get a case, and they say, 'No, we don't think that you're quite there,' and that person winds up killing a bunch of Americans, there would be outrage in this country like you've never seen."
To make his point, Graham asked Gen. James Cartwright if he came across a group of Taliban fighters who were asleep and whether he would wake them up before opening fire. Cartwright replied he would not since they were legitimate military targets.
"That's the point ... we don't have to wake you up," Graham said. "We're going to shoot you. That's the point, isn't it? Don't become part of the enemy. And here's the problem, how do we know if you're part of the enemy? That is a legitimate, honest inquiry here. So what I'm suggesting is that we back off and see what the goal is we're trying to accomplish."
Don't forget the terrorist enemy is one transforming itself around the globe, he cautioned the committee and its witnesses.
"The goal here is to make sure that we know the difference between fighting a war and fighting a crime," Graham said. "I will work with my colleagues in any way possible to make sure that we make the least amount of mistakes as a nation. But the one mistake I will not tolerate is the mistake of believing we're not at war."