Wait, American Lives Are Worth More Than Others'?

Desmond Tutu has unloaded on the Obama White House in a letter to the editor in the New York Times, drawing a parallel to the US war on terror with both slavery and apartheid. Tutu was set off by a story this week saying the US might set up a special court to vet any decisions to kill American citizens who are suspected terrorists. But it would be worried only about US citizens.

"Would your Supreme Court really want to tell humankind that we, like the slave Dred Scott in the 19th century, are not as human as you are?" asks Tutu. "I used to say of apartheid that it dehumanized its perpetrators as much as, if not more than, its victims." The same applies to these tactics, he adds. "Your response as a society to Osama bin Laden and his followers threatens to undermine your moral standards and your humanity." Read the full letter here.