Years ago, I heard on the radio this speech John Brennan gave outlining their drone strike kill list justification and rationalization

Basically he said

1. it wasnt punishment for anything anyone had actually done, but instead was a deterrant from doing something in the future

2. they would only do this if the person was an imminent threat to US interests, and it was just too dang difficult to arrest and convict them

I was never able to find that speech anywhere online, and ive never heard anyone else talk about it. Its like im the only one who heard it that day. Weird.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposition_Matrix