> It's not really fair to say he opened this can of worms

He was the sitting President and personally authorized the first extrajudicial assassination of an American Citizen in the GWOT.

As the Executive Chief, "The buck stops (t)here."

> the first extrajudicial assassination of an American Citizen

As in, there were extrajudicial assassinations of people before, but this one was too far because this time it was an American Citizen Capital A Capital C?

Well, yes. It's equally evil for the government to murder a Syrian as an American, but more legal under American law. The American has more legal protections under the American Constitution. That's what a large part of the article is about. So moving into killing Americans was a step further and a new legal precedent.

I know for the non-American reader it might come off a bit... wrong, but yes. To be clear, I'd rather we didn't go around droning folks or sending JSOC on an FFF mission unless they're, say, directly engaging troops.

It is incredibly unnerving to see one's own government explicitly authorize the death of a fellow citizen without due process of law.

When you read the Bill of Rights, "due process" is not a right reserved for US citizens. No person should have that right infringed, so it's just as unnerving to see the government explicitly authorize the death of a fellow person without due process of law.

He didn't open it but once the lid was off he didn't take long to dump it out.