OH, COME ON, GUYS – AT 8:04 A.M. ET:  The guy who tried to blow up New York's Times Square got a life sentence yesterday.  The Obama White House immediately claimed that this showed the system works.  Really?

The White House touted the life sentence imposed on Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad on Tuesday as evidence that the criminal justice system is capable of meting out swift and severe punishment in terrorism cases, notwithstanding Republican complaints that the military and the CIA are better suited to interrogating alleged terrorists.

“We are pleased that this terrorist has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, after providing substantial intelligence to our interrogators, and a speedy civilian trial,” White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

A little problem, guys.  The only reason this chap wound up in court is because his bomb failed to go off.  If it had ignited, he'd be on the lam and hundreds would be dead. 

The system didn't work.  Luck worked.  Incompetence worked.  But not the system.   The system was supposed to identify this clown before he drove his munition into the heart of New York.

One of these days some group is going to read the instruction manual before lighting the fuse, and the thing will go off.

The problem with the criminal-justice approach to terrorism is that it's too passive, too after-the-fact.  Going on the offensive, taking the war to the enemy, is the only strategy that has a chance of defeating, or even diminishing the terror ranks.

October 6, 2010