Yesterday was a dark day in the Long War. I won't pretend to understand more than I do in this ruling, but it seems to me that offering alien unlawful combatants, captured and detained on foreign territory, the full rights and protections offer under the US Constitution is crazy!
You get more protection as an unlawful combatant than a lawful combatant under the Geneva Conventions. If I were a soldier of a foreign power who was about to be captured, I would keep a set of civilian clothes in my rucksack. Why would I want to chance a military tribunal, when they would be forced to take me into a civilian court in the US.
Andrew McCarthy, over at The Corner shares a suggestion from a former colleague:
Let's free all Gitmo detainees...on a vast, deserted, open and contested Afghan battlefield. C-130 gunship circling overhead for security. Give them all a two minute running head start.
I don't ascribe to his methods, but I can understand his frustration. I wonder what, if any impact this will have on the rules of engagement? Wouldn't it just be easier to not end a battle until there's no one on the other side still standing? I don't know. I would hope not, but bringing these unlawful combatants into a civilian courtroom is wrong. This is a WAR not some sort of police action/criminal investigation.
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