Hicks sees a new dawn

This happened once before, in 2006, when the Supreme Court ruled the tribunals were illegal under United States law and the Geneva Conventions.

It could well happen again, and if Hicks has already been transferred to Australia, the result will be a legal mess.

The doubt cast over Hicks' plea undermines what in other circumstances would have been a triumph for the Bush Administration. It also brings into question larger issues about the strategies that are being used against terrorism.

Over the past five years, Guantanamo Bay and the detention of combatants such as Hicks has been an unwanted diversion. It has set back the fight against terrorism. Whatever the merits of detaining people like Hicks, the resulting furious debate has been counterproductive. It has tarnished the moral authority of nations such as the United States and Australia.

This self-inflicted wound has had a real impact on our ability to fight terrorism. Winning involves effective intelligence and policing work, and practical measures such as better security at our airports and ports. However, these are not enough. The confrontation between nations such as the US and groups such as al-Qaida must also be won at the level of ideas.

Western countries such as Australia must reject terrorism while retaining the high moral ground. If we do not, we risk motivating people to take up arms against us.

As Britain found with their bombings in July 2005, the actions of Western governments can isolate and ostracise members of their own community. This does not make those people right, but that is not the point.

We need to play smart by anticipating that failures of leadership, such as in places like the Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons, can turn people from assisting the authorities into becoming susceptible to terrorist recruitment.

This is what terrorists aim for. They cannot win by military might, and instead sow fear in the hope that governments will overreact. When governments do so, they weaken the ties that bind the community and undermine social cohesion.

With this stage of the Hicks saga coming to an end, we need some answers. How is that the US and Australia have turned someone who received terrorist training and enlisted with the Taliban into a popular hero? How did the straightforward prosecution of an enemy combatant turn into such a political and public relations disaster?