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russ_watters
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If I read correctly, the prisoners at gitmo are from something like 40 different countries. That certainly makes it complicated to classify them as combatants in the Afghanistan war.Originally posted by Njorl
I think it is due to the nature of the conflict. If they are classified as PoWs captured in a war against Afghanistan, they must be repatriated after the fall of Afghanistan. Many of these men are presumed to be engaged in a war against the US that is not limited to Afghanistan. It is assumed they would likely continue fighting the US in some other venue.
Hadn't heard that one, pelastration, but I can't say I'm surprised. They start learning to be terrorists pretty young in some places. I'm sure you've seen the home videos of Arabic infants dressed up as suicide bombers. Its really pretty sick - american boys grow up wanting to be SpiderMan or a rock star and Arabic boys grow up wanting to blow themselves up while murdering civilians.MEN?
Two more related implications of the criteria discussed above for lawful combatants:
Special forces such as the Australian ones referenced above often operate in such a manner as to be capable of being considered unlawful combatants. They are similar to spies in that they fulfil roles such as infiltration and surveilance. For these roles they don't carry weapons openly, wear uniforms, etc.
In the US anyway, special forces are made aware of the implications of their role prior to signing up for special forces. I'm not sure if they officially waive Geneva Convention protection, but they are informed that in some circumstances the GC may not protect them and in some cases don't even carry GC ID cards. Of course that isn't a whole lot different from the fact that most countries we fight don't obey the GC anyway. Your treatment at the hands of an Iraqi or Afghani captor wouldn't vary much based on your GC status.
Somewhat related are some of the war crimes comitted by Saddam. Many of the troops the US opposed operated similar to the manner described above (didn't wear uniforms, didn't display weapons openly, etc), but went one giant step further - they actively hid among civilians. One of the main purposes of those four criteria is to protect civilians by making it easy to distinguish between soldiers and civilians. Saddam knew that guys like Adam wouldn't distinguish different reasons for civilian deaths, so one of his GOALS was to kill as many of his own civilians as possible by essentially using them as human shields (though he went further even than that, actually using civilians as cannon fodder by sending them unarmed to probe our positions). That crime alone could get him executed or jailed for life at the Hague.
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