Ian Wood over at Astonished Head notes that it's important for us to remember that the terrorists are our enemies, not mere criminals. The distinction is pretty important. Criminals are people you want to catch because of what they've done. Enemies are people you want to catch because of what they want to do.
For the most part our criminal justice system is prohibited from punishing people for things they think or say. I can walk around and talk about how I love robbing banks, or defrauding the government, or setting fires, but as long as I don't actually do any of those things our free society won't do anything to stop me. As a concession to reality we do have some laws that prohibit making explicit threats against people, but even the most heinous nutjobs like the Klu Klux Clan and the North American Man-Boy Love Association are free to say and think almost whatever they want.
The point is, our Constitution largely prevents our government from creating domestic enemies. For example, Congress isn't allowed to pass bills of attainder. A bill of attainder is "a legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial"; for example, "Michael Williams is a traitor and shall be executed".
Which is why it's important that the War on Terror be prosecuted as a war and not as mere law enforcement. I'm not only interested in killing people who have committed terrorist acts, I'd also like to kill the people who are plotting, planning, and supporting terrorist acts. Some of those people may be criminals, but many of them aren't doing anything illegal in the place where they live -- many of them have the support of their government. The terrorists have already declared war on us, explicitly, and if we tie our hands and refuse to recognize reality, we're suckers.
That means we won't take the time and care to build a thorough case against everyone we kill. Innocents will die, some of ours, some of theirs. People will be punished for their thoughts, not only their actions. It won't be, and isn't, a pretty thing. War sucks. But do you know what's worse than war? Losing a war. Mr. Wood points out that we've got guards with machine guns in our shopping malls right now, but wouldn't it be worse if they worked for the American Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice? And if all the beautiful girls had to wear burkas?
I don't want us to kill innocent people, and there's something the innocents can do to protect themselves: quit sheltering the terrorists. In the old days, when an army would lay siege to a walled city the general would yell over the wall for the city to toss over the head of the ruler and no one (else) would get hurt. If the city knew it would lose anyway, it was a lot easier to comply and end the battle quickly than to fight it out. The same principle can be applied to the various terrorist-abetting populations: start tossing some heads over the wall.
(I seem to be commenting on everything you post today)
There is a notable exception to the rule of being arrested for talking about doing something. You can't go around telling your friends that you're going to shoot the President - that will land you in jail.
Plus, it just occurs to me, can't planning and preparing to perpetrate an illegal act be considered conspiracy? I mean, there's nothing technically illegal about sitting around a table planning how you and your friends are getting ready to defraud or embezzle your company out of millions of dollars, or preparing to rob a bank - if you're caught in the act of setting up an illegal act, isn't that prosecutable as well?