Thursday, July 13, 2006

Captain's Quarters

Captain's Quarters: "Name me a war where our enemies abided by the GC.

That isn't an argument that we should not abide by the GC, of course; we signed the document, and we should honor our commitment. However, let's quit pretending that this will gain us anything in the way our enemies treat our men and women, once captured. Perhaps someone can explain that supposed benefit to the families of Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker.

If we want to use courts-martial instead of tribunals, fine; that's a decision that Congress and the White House have to make. Let's not pretend that this will make a bit of difference to any American soldier captured by our enemies."

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I think this is true and I think everyone knows it, whether they admit it or not.

I don't care if they court martial, give them a tribunal or shoot them on sight, just so long as we stop them.

Of course we can shoot them, no one is really arguing that point.

Syl said...

If we want to use courts-martial instead of tribunals, fine

No, it's not.

That gives terrorists MORE rights than we have in our own criminal justice system.

I watched part of the hearings yesterday and here's just a couple things I remember:

They get speedier trials.
No secret grand juries.
Evidence open to the public.
Free counsel.
POW status.

And can you imagine the military resources necessary to put thousands of captured terrorists through the system?

As for the Geneva protections, the basic controversy is the language and leniency difference. 'Degrading' treatment would be forbidden.

The political problem is that to argue this some people must come out in favor of 'degrading' treatment and who wants to do that?

It's sickening how this is all being framed as a power grab by Bush. Seems to me the whole guantanimo thing was thought through very carefully. And different capturees have been handled in different ways just to get test cases through the system.

I do welcome the dialog in congress now and though I think the supremes were wrong, we do need some clarification of these issues so I'm glad it's happening.

It's the politics of it all that is so disgusting.