( CNN ) -- President Obama should end the legal seminar on the rights of terrorists . He should instruct the lawyers at the State and Justice departments and Pentagon that the debate is over . The time has come for all to accept that terrorists can not be treated as criminals . The main reason is that security requires preventing attacks rather than prosecuting the perpetrators after an attack . This is particularly evident when we concern ourselves with terrorists who may acquire weapons of mass destruction . It also holds for terrorists who are willing to commit suicide attacks : They can not be tried , and they pay no mind to what might be done to them after their assault . Finally , even terrorists not bent on committing suicide attacks are often `` true believers '' who are prepared to proceed despite whatever punishments the legal system may throw at them . In contrast to prevention , law enforcement often springs into action after a criminal has acted : when a body is found , a bank has been robbed or a child has been kidnapped . By and large , the criminal law approach is retrospective rather than prospective . Law enforcement assumes that punishment serves to deter future crimes -- not to eliminate them , but to keep them at a socially acceptable level . This will not do for the likes of Osama bin Laden . Nor should terrorists be treated as soldiers , a dignified profession and calling . Soldiers wear uniforms that allow one to tell foes from civilians and thus prevent harming the latter when fighting the former . And the insignias that mark soldiers make it clear which governments they serve , governments that can be held accountable for their conduct -- obligations terrorists refuse to discharge . They can not have it both ways : flout the rules of war and seek the benefits of these rules as prisoners of war . Obama surely has the legal training to realize that our minds are big enough to cope with more than two categories , that terrorists are neither fish nor fowl , neither criminals nor soldiers , but a distinct species . As such , terrorists are not without any rights . They should not be killed if they can be captured without undue risk ; they should not be tortured ; and their detention should be subject to , say , annual review by an institutional board -- composed of people who have security clearance , not necessarily military officers . Such a board should follow simplified procedures , as parole boards do in prisons , rather than those of civilian courts or military commissions . Click here for more on this subject from Etzioni . Terrorists should not be entitled to face their accusers , or else we would divulge the sources and methods of our information-gathering about their nefarious acts . And they should not be released until we have strong reasons to hold that they are no longer a danger to us , our allies or anyone else . The Obama administration 's position is so multifaceted that even someone who follows it closely and has considerable training can not make out what line it is following . Some terrorists are to be tried in civilian courts -- as long as they are not in New York , or maybe only if the civilian courts are located on a military base . Or terrorists may be kept at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , or shipped to countries that do not abide by our rules or maybe only to those that do . No one can build public support and legitimacy for such a cacophony of positions and voices . It is time to settle the matter and tell the government lawyers to move on . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Amitai Etzioni .
Amitai Etzioni : President Obama should set one clear position on treatment of terrorists . Etzioni : Terrorists ca n't be treated as criminals ; prevention , not prosecution , needed . They are n't soldiers , he says , since uniforms set troops apart from civilians , show nationality . Terrorists deserve rights but are n't entitled to face their accusers , Etzioni says .