No Habeus Corpus For You

You know, I never get tired of stuff like this:

Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan, President Obama's choice to represent his administration before the Supreme Court, told a key Republican senator Tuesday that she believed the government could hold suspected terrorists without trial as war prisoners.

She echoed comments by Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. during his confirmation hearing last month. Both agreed that the United States was at war with Al Qaeda and suggested the law of war allows the government to capture and hold alleged terrorists without charges.

Remember how we were assured that the bien pensants who will finally administer real justice would put a stop to all the depredations of civil liberties that the Bushies perpretrated? Guess not. In a hearing today, Sen. Lindsey Graham drove the point home:

Graham, a former Air Force lawyer, stressed the stark difference between criminal law and the law of war. He and Kagan agreed that under criminal law, no person can be held indefinitely without a trial.

"Do you believe we are at war?" Graham asked.

"I do, Senator," Kagan replied.

Graham cited the example of someone who is not carrying a gun or fighting on a battlefield. "If our intelligence agencies should capture someone in the Philippines that is suspected of financing Al Qaeda worldwide, would you consider that person part of the battlefield?" he asked. He added that he had asked the same question of Holder, who replied that he agreed that person was on the battlefield.

"Do you agree with that?" the senator said."I do," Kagan replied. Graham said that under the law of war, the government can say, "If you're part of the enemy force, there is no requirement to let them go back to the war and kill our troops. Do you agree that makes sense?"

Kagan replied, "I think it makes sense, and I think you're correct that that is the law."

"So America needs to get ready for this proposition that some people are going to be detained as enemy combatants, not criminals," Graham concluded.

If you haven't picked up on it yet, let's be clear. One of the most irritating things about the Bush years was the moral vanity and preening of some on the Left, especially regarding the conduct of the War on Terror. Many of those folks are now getting the vapors about how Obama is betraying their core beliefs. Personally, I'm delighted that the Obama team seems to understand that it is a dangerous world out there and that it simply won't do to pretend that we can extend Miranda rights to enemy combatants. Our enemies view the world very differently than we do in the West. We don't like to think of the battles we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as an existential struggle, but our enemies look it at that way. At a minimum, it appears that Eric Holder and Elena Kagan understand this. They will, along with David Petraeus and others who are charged with our defense, keep us free to be Code Pinkers and Truthers and sunshine patriots of the Hollywood variant. And their efforts allow me the freedom to call bullshit on those who sneer at them. God Bless America.