In the case of anyone targeting American or other citizens (that is, a terrorist intent on killing defenseless non-combatants), I would be unhappy if the American President (whoever they might be) did NOT only want to terminate, but did not do so on a timely basis (meaning before they attacked non-combatants, if possible, and definitely before they did so, again). Awlaki repeatedly attempted to do so and self-published videos of his actions and intentions. He can be considered an un-uniformed enemy combatant, so is not afforded any protection from the Rules of Land Warfare (it has provisions that say you can kill them as spies and saboteurs).
Lawyers who want to treat terrorism (and everything else) as a criminal offense, have a bad case of Maslow's hammer (everything looks like a nail). Hostis humani generis best befits terrorists.
