I feel the state of the State may be changing, if you'll pardon the expression.

Logical evolution; City-State to Nation-State to Continent-State

Possible Future Evolution; Nation-State to Micro-State or concurrent governance and the such, particularly in the frontiers regions of Asia & Africa.

We might be dealing in the future with trans-corporeal states, virtual states and religious states wich would in the past have only been labelled fronts/cells/networks.

The statehood criterion will likely change due to communication & easement of access as well as the Enclave method of occupation in different areas by NNAs.

There is of course no good legal framework for attacking these issues. Certainly the new fronts & groups are not Geneva Signatories.

Given these factors, if we continue with "pre-emptive imprisonment" as an, admittedly good, deterrent/collection/spoiling effort, can we ever morally return to summary execution of spies ?

Could any enemy combatant be forced into the category of spy/saboteur?

At the beginning of this action that "forcing" was essentially my best advice. Today I feel the Bush Administration might actually have gained less from housing than from hanging in these terror suspect cases, but what of the cost ?

In past wars non-uniformed combatants were able to be hanged as spies. Is this still the case ?

Morally & legally ?

To what extent has the moral implication driven US procedures ?

Or was it global opinion rather ?

And what of the precedent ?

Is this even a precedent ?