The American Pundit

Not all Democrats are on board with the Obama Administration’s decision to treat murderous terrorists like your run-of-the-mill civil criminal. In fact, one powerful Senate Democrat is being vocal about his opposition to the disastrous plan.

Senator James Webb (D-WV) says that suspects believed responsible for killing 3,000 innocent Americans don’t belong on American soil and in American courtrooms. He believes, logically enough, that they’re war criminals and should be tried as such — not regular criminals.

I have never disputed the constitutional authority of the President to convene Article III courts in cases of international terrorism. However, I remain very concerned about the wisdom of doing so. Those who have committed acts of international terrorism are enemy combatants, just as certainly as the Japanese pilots who killed thousands of Americans at Pearl Harbor. It will be disruptive, costly, and potentially counterproductive to try them as criminals in our civilian courts.

The precedent set by this decision deserves careful scrutiny as we consider proper venues for trying those now held at Guantanamo who were apprehended outside of this country for acts that occurred outside of the country. And we must be especially careful with any decisions to bring onto American soil any of those prisoners who remain a threat to our country but whose cases have been adjudged as inappropriate for trial at all. They do not belong in our country, they do not belong in our courts, and they do not belong in our prisons.

I have consistently argued that military commissions, with the additional procedural rules added by Congress and enacted by President Obama, are the most appropriate venue for trying individuals adjudged to be enemy combatants.

The accused in this matter aren’t the same as ordinary criminals accused of trespassing or disrupting the peace. They’re war criminals accused of waging war against the United States and murdering its citizens. Webb is absolutely correct when he says they should be tried as such, by military commissions — not civil courts.

Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is too dedicated to being weak on national security and turning the war on terror into a criminal investigation to listen even to its own party. It will go ahead with treating enemy combatants like domestic trespassers rather than the war criminals they are.