On Wed, 15 Jul 2009, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>> [WS:] The US was not at war with Syria when it carried its air raid in
>> 1986.
>
> [WS:] I meant to say Libya, of course.
BTW, am I the last guy to find out that Craxi saved Gaddafi's life that time by warning him? I saw it last Friday in the FT's Day 2 round-up of the G-8:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2215ef08-6ce8-11de-af56-00144feabdc0.html
Mr Obama was due last night to sit four seats from Muammer Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, at a summit dinner, 23 years after former US president Ronald Reagan bombed the colonel's tent.
Mr Gaddafi (above right) is attending the summit as chairman of the African Union. Italy is credited with saving his life in 1986 when Bettino Craxi, the former premier, warned him of the US raid.
<end tidbit>
But back to the topic at hand, I don't think you can cite this as a counter-precedent, because I think most international law scholars agree that this attack did break international law. There's also lots of other things that make it legally essentially different from drone attacks, like being on a head of state, and, obviously, not condoned by that state.
Michael