Obversation about 'enemy combatants'

[cynatnite]

Okay, let me get this straight. We capture these guys on the battlefield. Yes, the administration and their talking heads have said 'battlefield'. We're supposed to be at war. We're fighting them and they are fighting us. They see it as war, too.

But, because they are not wearing a uniform they aren't covered under the Geneva Convention which means we can do whatever the hell we want with them.

Yeah, okay...that makes sense. I can see how some wouldn't confuse us with Stalin's KGB and Nazis who took people, locked them up, no lawyers, no hearings, tortured them and refused to listen to the international community :sarcasm:

[Kraklen]

1. We're not capturing these people on a battlefield.

We're breaking into their homes in the middle of the night and dragging them out of their beds.

[tk2kewl]

2. yeah... but we've turned their living rooms into battle fields

[malmapus]

4. Yeah from that one memo all of Iraq is considered a warzone

The one that we sent to Italy in regards to that check point shooting.

[lumpy]

3. Bushco excuse for incarceration.

"this is a different kind of war". Yeah, Hitlerian.

[grumpy old fart]

5. The world is the battlefield...some of these folks were sold to us by

warlords....some were captured in the U.S....some turned over to us by 3rd parties in Bosnia...."battlefield" is a convenient metaphor for the bushco regime to render people into the Gitmo blackhole...though those are probably the lucky ones....what of the rendered ones in the boiling pots and torture chambers of our clandestine partners in this "war"???

[Karmakaze]

6. First things first...

The Geneva Conventions do indeed specify that people not wearing a uniform of some sort, even if it is just a baseball cap with a recognised insignia of the group they belong, are NOT "Prisoners Of War" and as such can be defined as illegal combatants.

What this means is that they are not due the rights of an official POW, including the right NOT to be prosecuted for their LEGAL actions during battle - in other words they cant be tried for killing enemy soldiers.

Having said that, they ARE due the rights of ANY person - a FAIR trial, and humane treatment, although they CAN be charged with the murder of enemy soldiers as they are not legal "soldiers" themselves.

The interesting thing about all this is that the Bush cabal STILL managed to fuck this up - The Geneva Conventions state that ONLY a competent legal tribunal can define such people as Illegal Combatants, and until then they MUST be treated as legal POW's.

How the Bush cabal have gone about this is defining them as illegal combatants by presidential decree (ie NOT a competent legal tribunal) thereby denying their right to be treated as POW's until legally defined as Illegal Combatants. They have then denied their HUMAN RIGHTS to a fair trial and adequate legal representation.

In other words, not only have they failed to meet the Geneva Conventions in terms of the definition of Illegal Combatants, but they have failed their legal responsibilities under Human Rights law.

Each person treated in this manner by the US constitutes another count of both war crimes under Geneva and crimes against humanity under relevant human rights laws.

I suspect that by now, there are more counts of war crimes committed by Bush than by Slobodan Milosevic. When will Bush join him in the Hague?

[Bluerthanblue]

7. the American Patriots,- freedom fighters,-...

what ever you want to call the 'Sons of Liberty' who fought against King George for the establishment of THIS nation, had no 'uniforms'-

Nor did many of the Confederate soldiers-

What about the words of the Bushman himself, in his SOTU speech of 2003-
he clearly makes the claim that a human is to be treated to the same justice no matter where they were born, or who they are:

"The qualities of courage and compassion that we strive for in America also determine our conduct abroad. The American flag stands for more than our power and our interests. Our founders dedicated this country to the cause of human dignity, the rights of every person, and the possibilities of every life. This conviction leads us into the world to help the afflicted, and defend the peace, and confound the designs of evil men." gwb sotu

i can hardly read those words without wanting to vomit, and weep- what fools we are- 'confound' the designs of evil empires- that is what we are reaping-

the Bush Government is EVIL incarnate-