This is not a comfortably black or white issue. It's actually a dilemma with no pat right or wrong answer. A good question is, when does being a traitor to your country become a crime so imminent that your country must stop you in the name of national security?

I wish it were as clear cut as I'd like it to be. But it isn't. And that doesn't mean I'm taking the official line as the irrefutable truth based on incontrovertible facts. If we had an extradition treaty with Yemen it would be a different story. These treaties are why diplomacy is so vital to national security, and hopefully Yemen will consider extraditing Anwar al-Awlaki rather than have it's space violated by the US. Our country has shown itself totally capable of striking within anyone's borders with impunity. And don't think I condone when all I'm doing is trying to make sense of a situation which has obviously been kept in the dark for the most part. Obama didn't need to make that announcement. That's the number one point to take into account. The fact that he did says a lot about what the many layered motivations are. It was a message to the world.

As I've been observing lately, there is much more going on under the surface than there appears to be. Obama and Hillary are putting a lot of pressure on Yemen and by extension many other countries in the Middle East. That old seeing one tenth of the iceberg applies here. Behind the scenes may be some very hot and heavy muscle diplomacy at work.