I Just Don't Know What to Say

Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to write something elegant and coherent. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to write a better defense of trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed than I wrote back back in November, a more persuasive one. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to breathe and engage in a cool, calculated discussion about where individuals charged with committing terrorist acts should be tried.

Not today. Today, I'm too angry.

President Obama's advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

They do one, one thing right when it comes to the detainees in this whole year, and then they're ready to backtrack. There is no credible opposition to trying KSM in a civilian court. Cost is not a sufficient objection. The fact that he will have an opportunity to speak is not a sufficient objection. The publicity is not a sufficient objection. The possibility of acquittal is not a sufficient objection.

All these things together do not even approach a sufficient objection.

They do not deserve special treatment. They deserve the treatment of common criminals, which they are. Common criminals, common courts, American justice.

They are not that powerful. We give them too much power, by fearing them so.

ETA: Read Serwer and Ackerman for something with a bit more information and a bit less frothing at the mouth. I can't give you that today.