Noel Maurer: "Anyhoo, I'm very surprised that only Andrew (I think it was Andrew) has disputed Steverino's premise, which is that we are at war. Of course, you'd first have to define "war," and then if you do decide that you're at war, you'd have to decide what parts of the legal system you're willing to throw out. Me, not so much, but then again, I'm planning on going to Afghanistan in September, so my tolerance for risk might be higher than most.

I think it's a war, of sorts, just not like any others we've had in the past century.

The closest is probably the Barbary Wars, where you have a fuzzy line between piracy and state warfare.