Great summation of the reasons to declare war. Thanks for pinging me on it!
I agree totally with your statement. Others have said that the difficulty in the WOT is that there is no nation-state or entity to declare war upon. How about a war on Islamic-Fascist organizations that resist democratic reforms, and the countries that harbor them.
That definition takes in a pretty wide swath of the Islamic world.....but it represents reality.
I think a properly written declaration might have simplified things with this case.
Probably part of the problem is that some of what Al Arian did was legal at the time he did it. Proving the connection between him and the people he supported is easy; proving the connection between him and the actions they took gets more difficult.
But if you declare yourself at war with a given group, it ought to be much easier to simply demonstrate that he is on their side and either take him into custody on that basis alone, or revoke his citizenship on that basis alone.
Lincoln has been criticized for revoking Habeus Corpus during the Civil War, and threatening to jail judges. Whatever the particulars of the individual cases, he at least understood that he was at war, and he was prepared to do what he had to do. When you are at war, you are in what in many countries is called a "state of emergency". If people declare their support for the enemy, you round them up. You can always apologize later after the war is won.