Cherie A. Thurlby / Foter.com / Public domainFormer Vice President Dick
Cheney became
the highest profile Bush Administration official to come out in
support of President Obama’s drone targeted killings policy when he
dismissed concerns about “checks and balances” and explained on CBS
This Morning that Obama’s “paid to make difficult, difficult
decisions.” Other Bush era officials who the president’s targeted
killings:

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton: “[t]he approach
that the Obama administration is following is consistent with and
really derived from the Bush administration approach to the War on
Terror, and I think it is entirely sensible. Whether it is foreign
citizens who are involved with Al Qaeda or American citizens, we
are in a war. They have attacked us. We have a congressional
authorization to use military force in response.

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden: “I find it very remarkable
that two very different presidents, two very different
administrations have such a powerful continuity, a powerful
continuum in their counterterrorism strategy… I am quite
comfortable that what the Attorney General laid out [on targeted
killings
at Northwestern last March] is more than legally sufficient and
I know it’s operationally effective.”

Former senior Bush advisor Karl Rove: “I want to give the
President the benefit of the doubt. I do believe the president has
to have tools like this to deal with people like al-Awlaki. This
was a U.S. citizen, admittedly, but he was  part of the
Al-Qaeda leadership in Yemen, he was a prime mover, he appeared in
videos, we had solid evidence that he was an activist in the
leadership of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Penninsula and he was a
threat to the United States and God bless President Obama for
having the courage to take him out.”

Former Assistant Attorney General John Yoo
argued Obama is actually diluting his war powers: “Mr. Obama
hasn’t issued American 007s a license to kill. The real story
revealed by the memo is that the Obama administration is trying to
dilute the normal practice of war with law-enforcement methods. Its
approach reflects the mind-set of an administration populated with
officials who spent the Bush years decrying military
methods then employed and are now trying to impose a weaker
law-enforcement approach to combating terrorism.”

Reason on drones