On 7/11/05, Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The second question I wish to address is: > > 2) How does one handle the status of prisoners taken in ongoing > hostilities > if they are POWs? > if they are "unlawful combattants", but there is not enough evidence > to > convict them of a specific war crime? > > (BTW, I see that I didn't finish writing the three questions down: the > third question is: > > 3) How does one determine the most likely possibility and the range of > possibilities from conflicting reports from conflicting sources?) > Let's assume that Afghanistan has settled down, but AQ is still active > elsewhere. Then things become more problematic. In a real sense, there is > now a global insurgency being fought against the present world order. > Given that, one can make an argument for not releasing members of AQ to go > back to AQ until the war is over. The trick, I think, is to put bounds on > how long one keeps unlawful combatants prisoner without charge....and under > what circumstances they can be considered prisoners of war and thus > confinable until the war is over. > > These are tough questions that deserve very careful consideration. I think > the administration is right in believing that we are on new ground here. > Their solution, simplify the problem by saying GWB is free to do as he will > without regard for the consequences is disastrous. It would be a bad > policy for a competent administration, but since this is not a competent > administration, it is a nightmare. But, the fact that the administration > has blown their handling of this question through incompetence shouldn't > obscure the fact that AQ poses a problem that was not under consideration > 50+ years ago.
I was going to disagree with you and discuss historical parallels - anarchists just over a hundred years ago, numerous "terrorist" organizations fighting to create, expand or change a state but... I have decided to support your questions. How do we treat terrorists who are determined to set bombs or otherwise attack people whose governments support what the terrorists feel are deadly and repressive actions in the Middle East? With lame-duck Bush increasingly irrelevant to this problem maybe it is time for a fresh start on this issue. -- Gary Denton http://www.apollocon.org June 23-25, 2006 Easter Lemming Blogs http://elemming.blogspot.com http://elemming2.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
