When I was a child in school, I learned about wars. We talked in school of other events in human history, but the timeline seemed defined by war. When I thought of the history of the United States, it appeared in my mind as chunks of time separated by wars: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. They seemed so clear – a start date and an end date; we were the good guys (of course) and the bad guys were conquered but we eventually became friends again. The battles had funny names, and sometimes it seemed to me as if they were simply violent parties – everyone came to the appointed field on the appointed day and lined up on their respective side, and the battle began. It would not have surprised me if a teacher had mentioned that engraved invitations were sent out. Vietnam was explained as being an aberration, a strange situation where we lost because it was so different from all the other wars we had fought – we couldn't tell who the enemy was, they acted just like the rest of the villagers.
Of course, my impressions were far from the whole truth. But I think there is a kernel of truth in them, as a reflection of what we, as a country, expect from war. These expectations are reflected in some of the questions that we are confronting in the “War on Terror.” One of these questions is of the difference between a “lawful” and an “unlawful” combatant, both in definition and in treatment.
In 2006, Congress weighed in with the “Military Commissions Act of 2006,” which defined an unlawful enemy combatant as “a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful enemy combatant (including a person who is part of the Taliban, al Qaeda, or associated forces) ); or a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (“the Act”), has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense.”*fn1*
