January 26, 2002

What Me Worry?

Last week the International Red Cross decided to bash America. They went to visit the detainees at Camp X-Ray located at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. They based their inhumane treatment report on two points. One was the fact that the detainees were photographed, and the other was that they were shackled, hand and foot. Both of these were declared clear violations of the Geneva Convention.

For those of you that do not know what the Geneva Convention is allow me to explain briefly.

The Geneva Convention was designed to compel combatants to treat POWs in a decent and humane manner. It has been signed by many nations of the world. Although as a side note here the Japanese during WWll did not sign the document, but thats another story.

Now here is the interesting part. The IRC and the usual handwringers have been sooooooo distraught by the treatment of the Al Queda terrorists that one group has actually filed a lawsuit on behalf of these and I use the term loosely, people.

So let us put their minds at ease. First of all these people have openly declared their hatred for America and Americans. They literally hate us and will, if given an opportunity kill us, period. There has already been an incident wherein a marine sergeant was bitten by one of these rabid dogs. Hence, the NEED for the shackles. Now unless these IRC investigators want to take over the care of the detainees, they need to stop whining. Secondly, the photo was taken of DETAINEES, not POWS.

Let us review how it is that the detainees are just that, detainees and not POWs.

1. They are not an organized military force, as they do not have a standard uniform that would denote such a force.
2. They did not represent any sovereign nation, but are terrorists that were harbored and given sanction by a nation.
3. As terrorists they do not ever attack a military objective or facility. In fact they have no objective in mind other than the use of terror against civilians to achieve certain political goals. So by definition they are merely thugs that used weapons on innocent people and cannot be defined as military combatants.

Therefore none of these detainees have rights afforded them under the Geneva Convention.

Lets look at what they have had happened to them

Many of them have been de-loused, treated for various diseases, including TB, which as you know is extremely contagious. They have been given proper food that takes into account the Muslim dietary codes. They have been provided with mats to pray on, including a sign written in Arabic that points in the direction of Mecca. Yes the are housed in 8 x 10 chain link cells with a roof overhead, the weather in Cuba has been certainly more hospital than the fabulous weather of Afghanistan. I would say that most of these people are treated better than they would have treated themselves or prisoners that have been in their care.

There does remain however one problem that does need to be addressed, and that is what do we do with them? If they were POWs they would be released at the end of hostilities and allowed to be repatriated back to Afghanistan. The problem here is two-fold. Some of them are not citizens of that country and as such could not be returned that country. But more importantly, they are TERRORISTS! They certainly would more than likely take up their trade as soon as they touch down. Perhaps the IRC and the other whining handwringers can just take them on home and give them a nice place to stay.
Rich
Editor
BCC