In place of justice, Counselor and President Obama has granted a continuance. One begins to discern how he perceives his place in presidential history -- not as the great dissenter from the previous administration but the Great Temporizer. When in doubt, order a high-level study, which now is to be undertaken in the cases of the government's most prominent guests at Hotel Gitmo.

Happily, the United States stands on the verge of a strategic victory in Iraq, which finally has a legal government of its own and a status-of-forces treaty that limits American responsibility for terrorists/suspects taken prisoner there. There is no longer a full-scale, raging war to deal with on that front, however dangerous and uncertain the fortunes of war remain there and certainly in Afghanistan.

Thanks to the previous occupant of the White House, the vision of a general named David Petraeus, and the devotion and self-sacrifice of those in uniform and out who have been defending this country for the past eight years, Guantanamo has stopped filling up and is now emptying. But even after all these years, the hard cases there have not grown any easier.

It was a good photo-op, this brave new president's signing that executive order closing Guantanamo, but is it good policy, or even a policy at all? For this presidential decision won't have to be put into effect for a year, and, by then, who knows what new executive orders will be needed to reverse the old? To sum up this president's non-policy: When in doubt, appoint a Cabinet-level study commission.

At the same time, the new president is moving to treat all the illegal combatants being held at Guantanamo as legal ones, that is Prisoners of War under the Geneva Conventions, even if that body of law specifically excludes those who do not follow the laws of war.

The legal line between honorable warriors and those who arrange for passenger planes to crash into skyscrapers with all too predictable and ghastly results may have just been erased. Or maybe not. It's not always easy to tell with our new president. Never fear: If he appears untested, he soon will be. Doing away with deterrents like military commissions will help assure that much.

Let's hope all this doesn't get too interesting, remembering that hope is no substitute for vigilance. The president and commander-in-chief who just left office managed to defend this country for 2,686 days without a successful terrorist attack on these shores. It's a streak that needs to remain unbroken.