Wake me when it's over

The flow of so-called information out of Pakistan concerning whether to revive the power of military courts to try civilians has proven to be so confused, unreliable and, in the end, a waste of time, that Global Military Justice Reform will no longer report on each tick of the clock. The lack of transparency and the insubstantiality of the repeated claims that the 21st Amendment military courts did a wonderful job cutting back on terrorism are frankly demoralizing. At the moment, we have no idea as to what information parliamentarians demanded or received concerning the administration of justice in actual cases during the two years the 21st Amendment was in effect. Rote, conclusory claims that revival is needed lack credibility. What we are witnessing is a test of the relative raw power of the military and elected legislators, rather than the hammering out of public policy on the basis of facts and evidence. We'll be back on this subject when there is something worth reporting.