Military Tribunals For Enemy Combatants

We are a nation at war.

You may already think you know that because we have soldiers fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But the really big war we are in, the war which will truly decide the fate of free people throughout the world, is the war against Islamist terrorism. This is a war that encompasses more than just Iraq and Afghanistan. It truly is a World War. However, we don't seem to really acknowledge it as such.

Even though Attorney General Eric Holder stated "we are at war" while defending his decision to prosecute the 9-11 co-conspirators in civilian court, most Americans, and especially most American elected officials, don't grasp the seriousness or the enormity of this war against Islamist terror.

The heads of al Qaeda mince no words when they say they want to bring about the death of infidels. In case you don't know, anyone who doesn't share exactly the same beliefs as them is an infidel. Homegrown terrorists also make no bones about the fact that they would like to see infidels in this country murdered.

So, like it or not, believe it or don't, we are at war with Islamist terrorists on a worldwide scale. Which makes it tough for me to understand why the masterminds of the most deadly attack by a foreign foe on American soil should be tried in civil court.

On this day in 1945 the Nuremburg trials began. This was a military tribunal set up to prosecute Nazi war criminals. The Islamist terrorists who plotted to kill people in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and elsewhere on September 11, 2001, were, and still are, enemies of the United States of America. They were enemy combatants engaged in warfare. They are war criminals. They should be put on trial before a military tribunal, just as our military enemies were put on trial sixty-four years ago. It is the right thing to do.