I’ve been trying to come up with a decent summary of why this article on the release of a “suspected terrorist” five years after his arrest depresses me, but I can’t seem to get beyond the obvious “Sixth Amendment in tatters” or hand-wringing “what are we doing here?” arguments.

What really gets me is how accepting we (or at least the media) have been of suspending our core values indefinitely because we’re A Nation At War. A man was arrested and held without any charges for five years, and there’s hardly a peep when he’s released. Have we really become a nation of cowering victims, willing to accept the “protection” of a police state no matter what principles it violates? Better yet, what can we do to get past all the war-talk and start treating crimes like crimes, subject to the rule of law?