Our Senators, along with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, have lost their minds. They adamantly reject any effort by the Bush administration to clarify the Geneva Convention. They are against any and all efforts to make sense of this vague document when the United States is the only country who seems to be following it in the first place. They argue that if we redefine the general provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and the conduct of our troops and interrogators, then others we fight will do the same thing endangering our troops. There are several problems with this line of thinking. First the Geneva Convention applies only to uniformed and easily recognizable soldiers. The people we are fighting are terrorists who do not wear uniforms, who do not carry their arms openly and who hide among the native populations. They are terrorists. The Geneva Convention gives no protection to terrorists.
Secondly, in this fight, the United States is the only combatant adhering to the Geneva Convention. Article III follows with the parts the terrorists are violating.
In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) Taking of hostages;
(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;
(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
2. The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for. (snip) (emphasis added by TRS)
The bold print above are things our troops are not doing to the terrorists, but they are things the terrorist are doing. We are following the Geneva Convention, the terrorists we are fighting are not. Right Wing News takes the Senators to the woodshed and puts it this way.
I’m not sure that there could possibly be a dumber argument for coddling terrorists than the one made by Lindsey Graham, who, as per usual, is playing Robin to John McCain’s Batman, this time on the interrogation of terrorists. Here’s Graham:
“Weakening the Geneva Convention protections is an unnecessary step and will put our military members and others defending our nation at risk by jeopardizing the protections they currently are provided.
“What is being billed as ‘clarifying’ our treaty obligations will be seen as ‘withdrawing’ from the treaty obligations. It will set precedent which could come back to haunt us.”
Exactly what protections are our troops being provided by the Geneva Convention? No enemy we’ve ever fought or are fighting has abided by it. So, in real world terms, the Geneva Convention provides no protection for our troops whatsoever. If we completely withdrew from the Geneva Convention tomorrow, it would have no impact at all on how our troops are treated.
John Hawkins is absolutely correct. Every enemy this country has ever fought has violated the Geneva Convention from the War for our Independence (before the Geneva Convention existed) to the Global War on Terror. The Geneva Convention articles concerning the treatment of prisoners of war were written largely by the United States after the conclusion of World War II because of the way our troops were so horribly treated by the other combatants, particularly Japan. But Senators like Lindsey Graham apparently do not know our history. Otherwise, how else can their total lack of common sense be explained, other than their self-serving pandering to the media. Colin Powell as a former general should know this fact as well as anyone. Our captured troops were tortured in the Korean War, in Vietnam War, in the Persian Gulf War, and now in the Global War on Terror. Clarifying the rules would not make our enemies any more or less likely to engage in torture. In fact all these rules do is to hinder the United States ability to conduct and win this war.
This does not mean we need to start torturing the terrorists. Far from it. But our interrogators need to be able to extract information for those who have it in order protect this country. Giving the terrorists more differential treatment than we give our own troops is idiotic. Jim Clonts has a great article at Military.com on this topic and says our legislators need to act now. Here is his conclusion.
As Americans we need to decide this issue once and for all. The men and women who conduct our interrogations have an extremely difficult and critically important job. They deserve to have the rules of engagement written in stone for their own protection; however, if we’re not going to allow so much as coercive speech, if we’re more worried about protecting the terrorists’ psyche than preventing future attacks, then we should abandon all interrogation of prisoners and let the chips fall where they may.
Our Senators need a reality check. The United States does not engage in torture and never has. And yet the Senators act as if we have. Panties on the heads of terrorists at Abu Ghraib does not constitute torture, just a sophomoric prank. Sawing off the heads of hostages does constitute torture. The actions of the Democrats on this issue can be explained, they want their power back at any cost even at the expense of the security of the United States. They will explain any attack on this country as failures of the Bush administration. But the actions of Lindsey Graham and John McCain are a little more puzzling. John McCain spent years at the Hanoi Hilton and was tortured unmercifully. He knows what torture really is. Why the Senator refuses to clarify Article III is a mystery.
The US Senate needs to act quickly to ensure that our troops and interrogators know what rules they are operating under. The security of the United States is at stake. The security of the United States demands their quick action.
Tags: Terrorism by Chuck
No Comments »
Posts
