A common argument is that terror should not be fought through war, but rather, terror should be treated as a police matter. But the truth of the matter is that people have the stomach for neither war nor justice.

The assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri is good case in point. If any other nation’s political leader was killed by agents of another, it would be considered an act of war. But the assassination of Hariri is being treated as a police manner and it is being conducted to the highest standards that any liberal could wish. But in the end, there is likely to be no justice.

And this lack of justice is the not the result of the matter being treated as a crime as opposed to an act of war. The investigation has almost certainly fingered the guilty parties.

Rather the lack of justice will come about because Bush, Israel, and the world at large have no use for justice when it is inconvenient. At least, that is the conclusion that Getting Away With Murder? by Joshua Hammer points towards.