We can protect the country and the Constitution

"The Assault on Terrorists" was the smartest description I have heard of the conflict going on between most major countries in the world and a network of violent political criminals. "The War on Terror" is a conception as tortured as its use of the English language (see Orwell's famous essay). Terror is a fear, an emotion. War cannot be waged against an emotion.
War is a (sometimes) legitimate use of policy. To brand terrorists as warriors gives them a status beyond that of the criminals they are. It helps them do what international terrorists do, which is use spectacular violence to conduct a publicity campaign and sometimes effect political change.
"The Assault on Terrorists" was uttered by Barack Obama at an event I attended last year. It summed up the notion that military, intelligence, and law enforcement resources will all be used, but it is not a war.
Today, we find out that Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's driver, will get only 5 or 6 months with time served. His trial shows that the Bush Administration's belated attempt to put this conflict in a legal framework is very clumsy. Newsweek quotes a former Bush Administration lawyer as saying: "In terms of global perceptions, it's really been the U.S. system that's on trial more than individual terrorism suspects". We look bad in the eyes of the world, here is today's Times of London, not a liberal paper.
The terrorists have scored political points on the United States! When terror and fear goad the government into altering our Constitutional framework, that is the biggest capitulation of all to the terrorists.