[makomk]

In this case, the executor has more power than the executee. The US can reduce people to bloody smears from drones that are almost invisible to their victims, with all the actual humans safely ensconced in bases hundreds of miles away. The people they're targetting have nothing like that - they cannot fight back without putting themselves straight in the line of fire.

[dspeyer]

Not massively enough. If the US tried to arrest these targets and bring them to trial, the arresting forces would get killed.