Pinkerton on Gitmo Decision: Who Wants Lawyers as Main Weapon in War on Terror?

When America marches off to war, do we want lawyers on the front line? OK, I can already hear the thunderous response: 'Yes! Put those tassel-loafered shysters out there as cannon fodder!"  But Jim Pinkerton, conservative columnist at Newsday and TCS, was making a more profound point this morning when he and Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News made their 'Long & Short' appearance on Fox & Friends Weekend.

The subject was the recent Supreme Court ruling that it is impermissible to subject Gitmo prisoners to military tribunals.  In fairness, short-'n-liberal Ellen Ratner did stop short of suggesting they should have full US-style trials.  But she predictably applauded the ruling, advocating significantly expanded due process for the detainees.

That's when long-'n-conservative Pinkerton weighed in: "It's not like we have access to evidence. What are we going to do - go to Afghanistan and find witnesses and stuff and find out if they're guilty or not?"

As Pinkerton observed earlier in the conversation:

"It was probably a mistake to ever bring them out of Aghanistan and Iraq to begin with, to take them to US soil . . . so that people like Ellen can get their hooks in them.  I think we're having a test.  Can we win a war with lawyers as the key force on the American side?"