Just in case you'd forgotten that we're in a permanent "war" with unstated objectives against unidentified "enemies," Digby quotes Senator Dianne Feinstein:
Therefore, if somebody is judged to be an unlawful combatant, and they remain a threat to our national security, what needs to be evolved is a process whereby their detention is periodically reviewed, either by a court, which I would prefer, or by a military panel and a determination made as to whether the threat still continues.
Now this would happen, I would think, annually, in a lengthy detention, but there is no question in my mind that somebody who is classified as an unlawful combatant can, in fact, be kept in detention until the end of this conflict, which means terrorism, against the United States, against her allies, and in the world abates.
It's cool, it's not like Dianne Feinstein — a Democrat from California — is one of "our" (liberals') politicians. And anyway, she might be saying that anybody can be detained, indefinitely, without ever being tried for crimes, as long as bad things are happening in the world anywhere, but what she's really saying is, "A Democrat is President. Let's put off having this discussion until the next Republican administration."
And here I was hoping that, with the Bush Republicans being soundly defeated at the last elections, politicians might move on and stop justifying results which are (1) bad and (2) illegal on the basis of a war-time paradigm which is entirely inapposite and makes absolutely no sense as applied to our current situation.
Accidental Blogger 
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