These questions of legality are outdated. In war, one kills enemies. Moreover, if a winning strategy is elusive, one kills ones enemies until such a strategy is available. If the enemy is not a nation, it’s still a war. And the terms assassination, murder, and extra-judicial don’t apply during war.

The number of innocent bystanders killed by drone attacks is obviously much higher than the small number publicly acknowledged. That number is also far smaller than the numbers killed by manned aircraft without precision weaponry in previous wars — and probably already exceeded by Russia in a relatively short time in Chechnya and Syria.

So welcome to the 21st century. It’s the law of the jungle. Not back to the law of the jungle. It was a self-delusion that we ever left it.