The reason I ask is that our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters on the left have spent most of the last decade screaming that waterboarding is torture — the only form of “torture” you can perform on your comrades at an anti-war rally without getting arrested, incidentally — and therefore it’s un-American. If you disagree in the slightest, that makes these concerned citizens very angry, and you’ll be accused of hating America and also cute little puppies probably.

And yet their response to the latest news on American foreign policy seems to be a bit… muted. In case you missed it, Josh Peterson reports:

A leaked secret Justice Department “white paper” detailing the Obama administration’s legal justification for the targeted drone assassinations of Americans living abroad made its way onto the Internet late Monday evening. The 16-page white paper — said to be a summary of a longer 50-page document on the highly controversial policy — is seeing the light of day ahead of the Senate confirmation hearing of John Brennan, President Barack Obama’s top pick for CIA chief… The white paper suggests that the federal government has legal recourse to engage in the extrajudicial assassination of an American citizen, reported NBC News, if “an informed, high-level official” has determined that the American is a “continuing” threat to the country.

So the President of the United States can kill any American citizen he wants, as long as somebody he decides is informed and high-level says it’s okay. And our friends on the left are okay with that, because the President of the United States isn’t George Bush or some other evil Republican.

Water on the face: “You monsters. It’s the end of the republic!”

Hellfire missile in the face: “Whatever you think is best, Barry.”

In related news, if you determine that someone is posing a threat to your personal safety, you’re not informed or high-level enough to defend yourself as specified in the Second Amendment.

For what it’s worth, I’m okay with both waterboarding and taking out terrorists with drone strikes, no matter where they were born. But then, I’m not the one who thinks it all depends on whether or not Bush did it. It’s almost as if lefties don’t really believe the things they harangue the rest of us about. It’s almost as if their only principle is obtaining and maintaining power.

But that couldn’t be it, could it?

P.S. ATTN David Gregory: Alexandria cops bust 10-year-old for bringing toy gun to school. Children should only be allowed to bring toy unmanned drones to school. And only if they’re the children of informed, high-level officials.

P.P.S. MSNBC’s Toure: from anti-drone to pro-drone in seven weeks.

P.P.P.S. Vodkapundit: NYT bemoans lack of drone-program coverage it won’t provide.