Torture and Terror... just a word in edgewise

Ride Fast and Cryptic Subterranean have been having a bit of discussion about torture, and Ride Fast seems to me to be missing an important point. He's arguing that a captured terrorist should be treated like either a criminal (given the full protections of our criminal law) or an enemy soldier (and given the full protections of the Geneva conventions). I think one distinction is obvious; if you're talking about a US citizen or other legal resident in US territory, you need to treat them according to criminal law. We may be at war, but we are not under martial law.

However, the discussion seems to be missing one major point on terrorists captured outside of US territory. The Geneva Convention protects uniformed enemy soldiers. Soldiers who are not in uniform have no protections under those rules and can be summarily executed. That we are not doing that says quite a bit for our restraint.

By definition, terrorists act outside the rules of war. They wear no uniforms, hide within civilian populations, and strike at civilian targets. They act without the approval or acknolwedgement of any government. They receive no protections from the laws of war which they have chosen to ignore.

That doesn't mean I think they necessarily should be shot out of hand, nor that our government can act entirely without a conscience. I believe the 8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, including torture, but not all "harsh interrogation techniques" are torture.

I do think it's a mistake to invoke the Geneva Conventions designed to protect uniformed enemy soldiers in defense of terrorists. The protections granted to prisoners of war are granted in return for honorable behavior by those soldiers in the conduct of their war. Terrorists have chosen to take a tactical advantage by disregarding those rules, and as such, do not deserve their protection.

It's also a mistake to call the patriots who founded our own nation "terrorists". Although there were undoubtedly cases where the rules of war (not the Geneva Conventions specifically, as those are a 20th-century idea) were broken, for the most part our Revolution was fought by a uniformed army (supplemented by militia forces), against uniformed soldiers, under the auspices of a revolutionary government.

That said... do carry on.

Posted on 2008-03-11 20:00:34.0 by matthew@triggerfinger.org

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