BEGGING FOR TERROR

Military judge Susan Crawford on Thursday [last] dropped all charges against Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, the mastermind of the 2000 suicide-bomb attack against USS Cole - a cowardly act that took the lives of 17 US Navy sailors, and a clear precursor to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. An outrage, you say? True enough.

But don't blame the judge. She was acting in full compliance with President Obama's executive order... [snip]

Unhappily, the president buys into the misguided notion that terrorists present a law-enforcement challenge.

They don't*.

By definition, terrorists operate outside the protections of the Geneva Conventions and international law. To be sure, the Bush administration allowed itself to be hectored into treating terrorists essentially as criminals - hence the trial Obama interrupted.

But as wrongheaded as the Bush policy might have been, dropping charges against Nashiri is even worse.

Terrorists are emboldened by indecision and irresolution - precisely the qualities animating the decision to stand down the Nashiri case and to embrace the Gitmo hand-wringers.

The terrorists know weakness when they see it. Count on it.

[*More to the point, 'law enforcement' relies on retribution - after the fact - to provide its primary deterrence. That's meaningless to suicide bombers. They must be interdicted, which requires intelligence.]

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