I think you're mostly right. al-Qeadda people are plain prisoners. The Taliban folks would seem to be POWs, and should be returned home when the US is no longer active in Afghanistan.

You are absolutely correct, international law hasn't caught up with the reality of fighting a war which doesn't have clear territorial boundaries. Can one hold prisoners until they like their captors?

Not needing an army, or land, to fight their wars puts us at a disadvantage.

The US knew going in there would be no end to this "war". As is the case in Israel, any extremist can drop a mortar round on a mall in Des Moines, and we start all over. The US will panic and probably start putting up heavy mesh nets over malls. Then there will be news reports about some nets not being heavy enough, some of them are down from time to time for repairs, and so on. A government agency will drop a few dummy mortar rounds on them and declare a few not strong enough, etc., etc., etc.

The interesting thing about terrorist acts is they seem to provoke a response similar to Pearl Harbor. Ever as devastating as WTC was, and it was very bad, it didn't "hurt" the US. Cost us a lot of money and time, and the lives of innocent people, which is the worse part. And, as far as the security of the country is concerned, it wasn't like taking out a carrier task force. Not a significant military action.

For all of the praise heaped on GWB, I see the Western world, including Israel, as floundering, fighting the last war once again. Losing a couple of busses and a destroyed wedding reception are human tragedies, enormous losses for the people affected.

However, militarily, the security of Israel wasn't threatened much, if at all. They can still field an army without those two busses. If that's the best the Palestinians can do, they are not a realistic threat.

And we don't know what the rules are, except that some of the last war's rules don't fit.

However, if one needs to be liked to avoid being attacked, we go about the strangely. And Israel does worse. The "Sharon Doctrine", create as much hate as you can, has only one "out". Kill 'em all. p's neutron bomb strategy.

Back to the prisoners. What happens with them I believe will say a lot about what happens from here on out. And, there doesn't seem to be any defining moment in the future to signal it's time to turn them loose.

Arf