Prosecuting terrorists: America and Obama wimp out, and India has the cojones!

So, Obama has backtracked, yet again.  It is getting difficult to keep count anymore!

This time, with the decision not to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the criminal justice system, as he said he would.  Instead, Obama is going the Bush route of military trials in Guantanamo.  I understand that a "principled politician" is an oxymoron, but still ...

Compare the American situation with the horrendous acts of terrorism in India.  The world was stunned by the events that unfolded in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, and the images of a terrorist methodically killing innocent civilians were simply surreal.  While nothing can be done with the terrorists who died, the survivor is a parallel to 9/11's KSM, right?

So, how was that lone surviving terrorist, Ajmal Kasab, handled?

On 3 May 2010, an Indian court convicted him of murder, waging war on India, possessing explosives, and other charges.^[5] On 6 May 2010, the same trial court sentenced him to death on four counts and to a life sentence on five other counts. Bombay high court has upheld the death sentence on 21 Feb 2011

No special military trials. And, wrapped up in a little over two years.  Despite all the potential for all kinds of fallout, given the high levels of tensions between India and Pakistan.  India's government and politics were confident and secure enough to carry out the trial.

Not so, here in the US.  What a shame!  It is now almost ten years since 9/11, and we are still fumbling around because we are afraid of how to work this through the criminal justice system?  Dahlia Lithwick puts it bluntly: "Cowardly, Stupid, and Tragically Wrong"

Every argument advanced to scuttle the Manhattan trial for KSM was false or feeble: Open trials are too dangerous; major trials are too expensive; too many secrets will be spilled; public trials will radicalize the enemy; the public doesn't want it.

What the heck has happened to the US, eh!

Lithwick writes:

The only lesson learned is that Obama's hand can be forced. That there is no principle he can't be bullied into abandoning. In the future, when seeking to pass laws that treat different people differently for purely political reasons, Congress need only fear-monger and fabricate to get the president to cave. Nobody claims that this was a legal decision. It was a political triumph or loss, depending on your viewpoint. The rule of law is an afterthought, either way.

Isn't it awful, pathetic, and scary too, that the rule of law has become an afterthought?