Do you think that terrorists DESERVE Geneva Convention rights when they do not fight "fair"?

Question

** They wear no uniforms
** They hide behind woman and children
** They are not FAIR to us (beheadings and kidnappings)
** They love our liberals and talk just like them

I do not want them TORTURED - but they do not deseve special "rights", as they are not rational human beings.

As I am writing this I have 8 responses - you guys are ALL really great and I love your rational answers!

Cold Heart - I agree with you too!

You ALL have intelligent and thoughtfull answers and I am re-reading them now.
THANKS

Answer 1

I don't like it but I have to agree with Steve J that no they don't deserve to be treated any different then the way they treat others but we have to treat them under the Geneva Convention because we have to abide by those guide lines because we are a moral country no matter what the far left say. But I draw the line that we should give them rights under our constitution like civilian trials. No matter how we treat these people the Bush administration will be doing it wrong according to some. Like Dick Durban saying we are no better then the Hitler regime in the way we treat these folks at club gitmo or at Abeu Grab (sp) After reading what happened to that college kid after a hazing incident over the week end I say send them to college and close all the detainee camps. This kid after it was over had to get 25 stitches in his butt and had a busted ear drum.

Answer 2

1.There is no fighting fair.
We did not fight ‘fair’ by the rules of the time against the British.

2.The Conventions are not for ‘them’ ‘now’.
We follow them because they are for ‘our’ soldiers in ‘future’ conflicts.
If our word means nothing, and we have broken the Conventions – then we have nothing to say when it happens to us and nobody will care.

3.Torture is not about information. Even the interrogators at Gittmo (in addition to every expert in the world) acknowledge that torture provides, at best, useless information and, at worst, counterproductive information that actually works against us.

4.To date, America’s greatest loss has been our honor and dignity because we no longer have either the moral authority or respect of any other nation in the world.

If there is anything worse than a terrorist, it’s a two-faced untrustworthy, lying hypocrite – which is how we are now perceived – and perception is reality.

Even if a country like Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. No one will believe us, and worse, no one will care what happens to us.

The war on terror can only be won with intelligence information (like Iran and Syria helping us pin-point OBL in Afghanistan).
That’s how the British stopped the last airline threat, And that’s why we don’t hear about the Red Brigade and IRA much anymore – police work is the only way to deal with terrorists. This whole ‘war on terror’ thing is idiocy. It’s like saying we’re at war with ‘tank attacks’. Well, yeah, that’s one thing, but if that’s all you fight against you will lose by other means.

And it is a war of ideas and beliefs, and that is where victory will be decided.

Finally, the ‘terrorist’ label is becoming increasingly bogus. Iraqi’s fighting us, in Iraq, cannot be called terrorists anymore than American revolutionary’s could. You are not a terrorist if a foreign army invades your country and destroys your life and kills your family. It’s calling defending yourself – it always has been and it always will be.

It was never a goal of this administration (or any other) to help the Iraqi people. That excuse only floated to the surface after excuses 1 through 10 were proven to be lies.

We don’t have a moral or legal leg to stand on and the whole world plus most Americans knows it. This whole mess has been conceived, planned and executed by the worst and most incompetent (at everything except winning elections) people America has to offer.

Answer 3

Do you think the Terrorist will be the last war America fights. What about the other countries that we will have to fight in the future that do have uniforms. Now ever country in the world has a green light to do what they see is fit for interrogations. This will change the battle field for real wars for generation to come. You have to look at the big picture here. Forget about this war with terrorist, they will never be able to take over the USA, if you can tell me how I will change my thinking to yours. All they can do is blow **** up they can invade Washington DC and take over our government. Think about it. Our military is supposed to fight other militarily not terrorist. Its like sending the Cops to fight fires. Then next real war we get into with a real country can just do what ever they want to our guys because the Geneva no longer is the standard in protecting troops, it is just a piece of paper.

Answer 4

I don't think they deserve the rights provided by the Geneva Convention. And I agree about the torture thing. Our definition of torture is completely different than theirs. If making someone think they are going to be harmed--to me--isn't torture. It's when you actually harm them.
But I do think they should be given a chance to defend themselves as far as a trial though. Not all the captives are in fact terrorists. Some were innocently caught up in the web. Others were Taliban--which was was the legal government at the time.
When we stoop to their level, it makes us question ourselves. We as a nation, are better than they are.

Answer 5

Terrorists do not deserve any rights, yet in my opinion our extending Geneva Convention Rights to them shows the world that we are not the bad guy here. Let them maim and torture their victims. We are the good guys and do not need to do so. Nor do we hide behind women and children. The world will know , whether they like it or not, that we are not the problem

Answer 6

I would argue that the USA can't claim any moral ground in the fight for human rights in the world if we torture people. We are no better than our enemies then. The Japanese and the Germans tortured our soldiers, but they also lost the war. Our most vocal Prisoner of War, John McCain, is adamently against torture. I think if you were as unfortunate as him you would agree with him.

Answer 7

You are correct, they do not deserve special "rights" and, they won't get any special rights when they are picked out of the field by our military.

Let's be honest here. A U.S. field unit that picks up an enemy combatant generally is on edge in the first place. Either the enemy was just shooting to kill them or planning to shoot at them in order to kill them. When our ground troops pick any enemy in battle they are interrogated on the spot.

Men and women in battle do not have many rights, that's the nature of war. When prisoners are turned over to the company, brigade, cia or whoever. then they can have some rights.

Answer 8

The Geneva accords were written to give everyone an even hand when conducting war. If one side did not obey the Geneva convention it meant that the other side would not, putting their soldiers in jeopardy.

Now it is used to give the terrorists the upper hand when conducting their operations. They do not have to obey the rules yet their useful idiots and collaborators in the US make sure that our troops do.

Answer 9

Every person deserves the rights allowed by the Geneva Convention. If the US does not give those suspected of being terrorist this fundamental right, then what moral ground can we stand on? Under what code will we be able to say behendings are wrong? Or that terrorism is wrong?

It is just stooping down to a level of immorality that we do not want to be.

Answer 10

The Geneva is for Uniformed combatants and therefore does not apply to those who will not wear a uniform