Such is the view of former front-line federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy, the man who, ironically, led the successful trial of "the Blind Sheik," Omar Abdel Rahman, for the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Here is a sample of Benjamin Weiser's New York Times piece on McCarthy:

"We become headquarters for counterterrorism in the United States," he said. "Not the C.I.A. Not anyplace in Washington. The U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York."

"From the country's perspective," he said, "it's not a good thing." A prosecutor's job, he added, "is not the national security of the United States."

In June 1998, the office secretly indicted Osama bin Laden. Three months later, Al Qaeda blew up the two embassies.

"I mean, we could go into the grand jury and indict him three times a week," Mr. McCarthy said. "But to do anything about it, you needed the Marines. You didn't need us."

Like McCarthy, I was a long-time Assistant U.S. Attorney under administrations of both parties.  McCarthy is spot on in his description of why the federal criminal justice system, for as effective as it is in some contexts, is poorly adapted to serve as the country's mainstay for winning the war that has been thrust upon us.  The prosecutor's job is to punish those who have commited mayhem.  But what the nation most urgently needs now is to prevent mayhem and defeat its sponsors before they strike.

Forget the Hornbook.  As McCarthy says, bring on the Marines.