No POW Status for Guantanamo Bay Detainees
More word games by the administration to avoid following any rules that would require it to treat human beings by even the most basic international standards of treatment. First, the military tribunal idea, now refusing to call the Taliban fighters and accused al-Qaeda members POWs so we don't have to follow the Geneva Convention (which provides for such things as respecting basic human dignity). Now, as Molly Ivins says, either this is a war (which we are repeatedly told it is), or it isn't. If the administration insists on using the very legal term "war," it has to follow the rules associated with it. If we're having a war, and we've taken these people prisoners, they should be considered prisoners of war.
And this is the party which slammed Clinton for splitting legal and syntactical hairs by questioning the definition of "is"? At least there was no human life at stake.
Post a Comment