I don't share those, and think he is ducking the issue by saying the memo improperly seeks justification for its geographical reach in Hamdan. Rather, it acknowledges the lack of clear guidance and develops a a legal theory based upon the history of hostilities launched by one party to a conflict from inside a neutral third country (Vietnam and Cambodia) and the executive intent of the signatories to the Geneva Conventions (as suggested by Corn & Jensen).

I'd like you to consider the possibility that some questions are not easily justiciable (that is, decidable by the judiciary), and this is why the Supreme Court sometimes declines to take up an issue on the grounds that it is a 'political question'; one for which there are no clear legal rules and the matter must ultimately be left to the approval of the citizenry via the electoral process.

I am well aware of Yamamoto's killing. Allow me to refer you to the killing of Herberts Cukurs.

But this exemplifies what's wrong with your argument. Cukurs was killed because of something he was judged to have don ein the past. There was no question of his attempting to continue his Holocaust-era activities. Al-Awlaki, by contrast, was actively fomenting war against the US by his own public statements.