The Boumediene decision will not result in a single detainee being released now. It means simply that each detainee will get a meaningful hearing, not the sham process of "Combatant Status Review Tribunals" that the administration hoped to use. Either way, litigation continues, while remedies remain distant.For those new to the laws of land warfare. The PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE is that one is a card carrying member of an actual armed force, if one is detained armed on the battle field. That Presumption must be overcome, not in the combat zone by combat troops, but by a legal tribunal that would the same sort of legal tribunal that the troops are ruled by!!!
[ cf Justice Scalia's Dueling Opinions ]
Now, this leads us to the ugly place in our unpleasant world. IS IT the postion of the whiners, that our american troops should not be bound by law, by american law, and therefore any form of kangaroo court is good enough for them.... Since that would allow for the sort of sloppy shenanigans that have gone on so far.
Remember, there is SUPPOSE to be a legal proceeding done by the folks who do LAW to establish that a person is in "ILLEGAL COMBATANT" - and therefore is NOT allowed to have the protections of the POW status. That would be required to strip the detainee of the rights as a Prisoner Of War - it would not change the matter that under the laws of land warfare any trial for their 'illegal combat' - would still be obliged to comply with the very same laws that govern the troops!!!
And again I ask the ugly question: are the so called pro-war folks so committed to ending the rule of law in the american armed forces???? Or is their desire to end the rule of law in the american armed forces merely a part of their own vision that there should be no law in america!!! That it IS SERE all the time, all channels, all nets.
Or better yet....
Uh... When they are being pro-vet, it is their hope that these little please for mercy will still be operable, if the troops are ever allowed to come home en masse, and that they are the start of the new Pagan Idolatry that will some how protect them from the vengence of GOD....
So hey kids, what if we were obliged to make law legal in america?
Or if we can not retain it in the civilian sectors that have collapsed into total anarchy and barbarism, that we may still be able to hold some sense of 'the rule of law and not persons' in the zones under the control of the US Military...