You blend the approaches as necessary under the circumstances. In Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other places like Somalia, military power to various degrees (in Iraq, trending away from military power to law enforcement) is appropriate.
So this report on efforts in Britain do not conflict with my support for treating the war on terror as a military effort in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia:
In the last two years, there have been 86 successful terrorist prosecutions in Britain. This is believed to have had a demoralizing effect on Islamic terrorists. It's not so much that they fear getting killed, they don't. The terrorists do fear getting caught before they can strike, and sentenced to decades in prison. That is a terrorists worst nightmare, and British counter-terror organizations use it to keep the 2,000 (estimated) active Islamic terrorists in Britain off balance.
As the Long War kicked off, I was rather explicit on this very point:
The criminal justice system has a role in this war as well. Although we now wage war, the military and militarized components are not the only means of fighting. If we can arrest and try anyone involved, especially those found on our shores, we demonstrate we are a nation of laws even in dire times. We will stand proudly showing our enemies that they cannot turn our society into a mirror image of their hate-inspired world. Although arresting terrorists should not be the priority, for this is a war; when we do catch them we should not treat them as warriors or prisoners of war, but deal with them as mere criminals. Arresting, trying, and imprisoning the terrorists like common criminals will be demoralizing to many zealots who imagine themselves going down in glory battling the "forces of evil" embodied by the United States. There is little glamour in being represented by a court-appointed attorney in a prosecution for criminal acts, and this humiliating end will dishearten all but the most committed suicide bomber.
There's nothing wrong with JDAMing terrorists. Far from it. Any dead jihadi is a good jihadi as far as I'm concerned. But Britain is right not to JDAM terrorists inside Britain, of course, any more than jihadis on the battlefield should be served with papers.
Use all our tools to destroy the jihad.
