IMAGINE a terrorist setting off a bomb in your home, killing 17 friends and family members. Two years later, you learn authorities have caught the mastermind of the attack, who's confessed not only to bombing your house but other acts of terrorism.

Then, six years later, you hear that the charges against the killer have been dropped and that he might go free - while those who arrested and questioned him may face congressional investigation and even jail time.

If you can get your mind around this nightmare, then you can appreciate the feelings of retired US Navy Cmdr. Kirk Lippold, former skipper of the destroyer USS Cole.

On Oct. 12, 2000, terrorists set off a bomb alongside the Cole as it was peacefully moored in the port of Aden. The blast killed 17 members of Lippold's command and wounded nearly 40 others.

On Thursday, proceedings against the bombing's mastermind, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, were suspended and the charges against him dropped, thanks to President Obama's executive order putting on hold all military tribunals for terror suspects. The charges may be reinstated later, depending on the results of the administration's review of these issues. Where that review is leading is unclear - and al-Nashiri's release, despite his confessed guilt, becomes a real possibility.

All this is more than just a direct slap at the men and women of our armed forces. There's good reason to worry that leftist ideology will lead our government to see the rights of terrorists as more important than the safety of those who fight them.

On that same day, after all, Obama's nominee to head the CIA, Leon Panetta, was being pressured by members of Congress to say that the new administration intends to prosecute the Americans who interrogated al-Nashiri and other terror detainees.

This is a bizarre twist on "Crime and Punishment," where terrorists commit the crimes, and those who stop them get punished.

Yes, Panetta and Attorney General Eric Holder have both said they don't want to see CIA or military officials prosecuted for doing their jobs. But if al-Nashiri's lawyers manage to get him out of prison, congressional Democrats and the US left will demand that those who tried to keep him from killing other Americans - indeed, every person who took an active role in the Bush War on Terror - take his place.

Almost since 9/11, many on the left have behaved as if they and al Qaeda are fighting a common enemy. Such Marxist ideologues believe that terrorists, drug-dealers and other assorted criminals are really "primitive rebels," waging a crude but brave insurgency against the capitalist system - and that the military, CIA and police who fight them are mindless minions of that same corrupt system.

The ACLU and other groups infected with this ideology may not approve of the terrorists' tactics. But among their ranks are those who used to cheer every Friday night when Walter Cronkite read the numbers of Americans killed that week in Vietnam, and who still demand that Philadelphia cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal be set free. Now they've moved on to the Guantanamo Bay detainees.

And the dropping of the Cole bombing charges suggests that they now have the ear of the White House.

For now, al-Nashiri remains in prison. Of his guilt, there can be no genuine doubt. The military tribunal's lawyers have been painstakingly assembling the evidence against him. In 2004 a Yemeni court sentenced him to death in absentia for the bombing of the Cole.

Obama officials insist that al-Nashiri will ultimately face justice. The president himself says he is just waiting for "the right judge" for the case. But don't hold your breath. Al-Nashiri is one of three CIA detainees who were waterboarded in the weeks/months after 9/11, in order to force him to provide information about al Qaeda in Yemen and possible plans for other attacks.

Once upon a time this would have been seen as proof of how important and dangerous a terrorist al-Nashiri really is. Now it may be the Saudi terrorist's "get out of jail free" card. When his case finally does come up for a new trial, al-Nashiri's lawyer is sure to argue that his client was illegally tortured, and that after seven years in detention, he has also been denied a speedy trial as the Constitution requires. Will Obama's "right judge" agree, and let him out?

If the man who carried out the murder of 17 American sailors in cold blood does manage to evade justice, the message from the administration to our armed services will be clear: Your lives count for less than the well-being of our deadliest enemies.

Arthur Herman's latest book is "Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age."

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