12.11.2007

REALITY CHECK!: The 2 Way Street (Part 1)

There's a lot of talk lately about water-boarding, torture, and whether or not Al Qaida terrorists should have the full rights of US citizens.

Now I'm not going to talk about Democratic Senators giving the okay to water-boarding, and are now screaming as if it's the equivalent of a hundred Auschwitz's. Instead I'm going to explain what rights and privileges are granted to Al Qaida terrorists by the Geneva Convention.


None

Bupkis

Zip

Zero

Nada

You see there's a very simple concept that lies at the base of the Geneva Convention.

It's called the 2 way street.

To qualify for the protections of the Geneva Convention, you must first follow the Geneva Convention yourself.

Now how many people taken prisoner by Al Qaida have been treated as legal prisoners of war?

I'd ask them, but most of them have been beheaded.

Plus:

Al Qaida is not an army of a nation state.

It doesn't wear uniforms.

It hides its weapons.

It deliberately targets innocent civilians

and

Hides among civilians.

Several millennia of military tradition dictates that these people are not soldiers, due the rights of a POW, but mass murdering thugs who have stepped beyond the realm of civilization. When you step outside civilization and actively seek to destroy it, civilization owes you nothing.

You don't want to know what we do with terrorists in my Empire, otherwise known as THE REST OF THE UNIVERSE.

It's not like you'd be able to do it anyway.

You don't have Sarlaac pits on your planet.

Keep Watching The Skies, Because We're Watching You.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Geneva convention has been twisted by some into saying we need to offer Geneva convention rights to terrorists by misusing terminology having to do with civil wars with a rebel forces and additions made which the US hasn't agreed to.

They basically rendered the GC meaningless.

Not only is following the GC yourself technically required, the threat of reciprocity is the only tool of enforcement.

Basically treat our guys nice and we'll treat your guys nice. If you declare you will treat the other guys nice no matter what, you give them a huge weapon on the morale front.

This weapon isn't that big a factor in Iraq because our troops outclass the terrorists.

But imagine a war where troop numbers and capability are more even. How devastating to morale would it be that if you or your friend were captured, you would be tortured, starved, or humiliated. But if you mistreat an enemy soldier in a moment of anger, you will be hauled in front of a court for war crimes.

Sezme said...

Well said, Remulak.