Gene Healy: Boston Bombing Suspects Are Losers, Not Enemy Combatants
When asked by reporters last week about what motivated his nephews Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to bomb the Boston Marathon, Ruslan Tsarni replied "being losers, [full of] hatred to those who were able to settle themselves." Now contrast Uncle Reslan's pithy dismissal with the current Republican craze for declaring America a "battlefield" and demanding that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a naturalized American citizen, be held as an "enemy combatant." As Gene Healy explains, that proposal, issued by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), among others, is illegal, unnecessary, and unwise.
