Is the war on terror over, or isn't it?

So, is the war over? Sure sounds like it when President Biden addresses the subject. As unconscionably reckless as his withdrawal of our last forces from Kabul was, Biden insists the debacle was worth it because it marked “the End of the War in Afghanistan” — as he described it in his speech at the time. This echoed President Obama, who similarly pulled American military personnel out of Iraq, and who often insisted that the war was over — or at least fading into irrelevance — once U.S. forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Yet, to hear government officials tell it, the war is over . . . except when it’s not. They are still relying on arguably obsolete congressional authorizations of military force, not merely to detain terrorists who have not been charged, but to conduct combat operations against active terrorists — even in countries against which the U.S. is not at war, and even if the terrorists are attached to jihadist factions that did not exist when the post-9/11 congressional authorizations went into effect.

There are still over three dozen jihadists detained at Gitmo. They are still being held at this point only because there are well-founded concerns that they could return to anti-American terrorist activities if released. Half of them are nationals of countries, such as Yemen and Somalia, that are so unstable that it would be irrational to believe repatriated jihadists would be effectively monitored. At least seven remaining detainees will never be charged, and the way the highly erratic military commissions have gone, who knows how many of those who have been charged will ever actually be prosecuted to conclusion? And what happens to any jihadists who end up being acquitted — do we just let them go?