When a terrorist act which may or may not be a cause of war occurs, and hostilities are engaged, a lot of steps are taken in advance of determination of their legality. The previous administration took some of these steps, then kind of lost steam and let time go by. Too much time. What doesn't happen on the battlefield gets determined by other means, and legal is one of those means. The legal process in our country is configured to allow guilty to go free rather than imprison an innocent party. This can lead to an experienced terrorist being restored to his or her cohorts. And apparently it has happened in several cases already.