Just to make sure I understand:

- We can keep people detained indefinitely at Gitmo and secret torture prisons because they aren't covered by Geneva Convention. They aren't covered by the Geneva Convention because they aren't prisoners of war. They aren't prisoners of war because we're not really at war, no war has been declared. It's a "different kind of war."

- This "different kind of war" will last for decades.

- Bush says that he's allowed to violate the law because we're at war.

So, what Bush is telling us is that it's enough of a war for him to rule by executive fiat, but not enough of a war for us to violate international law in our conduct of said sort-of-war. And it won't end in our lifetimes. So we'd better get used to him having unchecked power for the foreseeable future.

Looks like al Qaeda's attempt to eradicate our freedom is a continuing success. I'd rather die in a free country than be kept alive by a police state.