Lindsey Graham's Senate Web site boasts that the new illegal enemy combatant bill "[p]revents terror suspects from filing lawsuits in federal court. Federal judges will be allowed to conduct limited review of certain legal issues but will not be able to take over military decisions determining who is and who is not an enemy combatant."

How does he balance blithe confidence in this aspect of military judgment against the record in the war on terror? A study of a large number of Guantanamo detainees found that more than half of those at Guantanamo are innocent of any hostilities against Americans, rather than being captured in the heat of battle. Or again, the Red Cross found that 70 to 90 percent of Abu Ghraib prisoners were arrested erroneously. This issue has no business being used as another of the Republicans' talking points when the evidence is readily available to counter the spin that would enable it to work in their favor. This is an issue of security and justice and the war of ideas and it is ours to claim.