Critics of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to bring the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and four other accused terrorists to New York for trial can’t seriously believe the city will have trouble handling the expected “Trial of the Century” hoopla. The critics can’t really think a judge is going to give Khalid Sheik Mohammed an open microphone to spew his jihadist views, or fear that a jury — sitting just blocks from Ground Zero — will look for reasons to let an accused mass murderer off on some technicality.
Everyone knows that the bloodthirsty blowhard is never going to see the light of day.
The uproar is really about the word “war.” Outrage is being voiced by those who worry that Holder and President Obama are abandoning the Bush-era doctrine of a “war on terrorism” that must at all times be conducted by military means.
Those critics are wrong. The problem is that we can vanquish al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups without defeating the larger enemy: a militant, fundamentalist perversion of Islam. We can and should go after Osama bin Laden and his collaborators with relentless determination and, yes, that fight should be led by our armed forces. But to achieve a meaningful victory, we also have to win the war of ideas — and in that philosophical and theological struggle, the concept of justice is a key battlefield.
The jihadist narrative is largely about justice, or rather what radical imams and their followers perceive as injustice. In the enemy’s version of history, the West — meaning the United States, Israel, Britain and what used to be called Christendom — has a long history of exploiting the Muslim world. We occupy Muslim lands to steal their resources. We install corrupt lackeys as their rulers. For all our high and mighty talk about fairness and justice, we reserve these luxuries for ourselves. In this warped worldview, we deserve any atrocities that jihadist “warriors” might commit against us.
Protesting that all this is absurd and obscene does not make it go away. And our troops’ military success actually helps to further the jihadist narrative about a “crusade” against Islam.
Putting KSM and the others on trial in a civilian proceeding on U.S. soil is not just a duty but an opportunity. It’s a way to show that we do not have one system of justice for ourselves and another for Muslims, that we give defendants their day in court, that we insist they be vigorously defended by competent counsel — that we really do practice what we preach.
It would show the preachers of hatred and their followers that we’re not afraid of them or their poisonous ideas. It would show that they haven’t changed us or our ideals — and that they never will.
I say bring it on.
