BF2S Forums It's okay to kill americans

KEN-JENNINGS wrote:

Releasing enemy combatants simply because they were waterboarded is as absurd as relying on confessions gained through waterboarding to convict these people of terrorism.  The fact that many here assume these people are guilty based off confessions gained through torture or informants with monetary incentives is troubling, especially given the western ideal of "innocent until proven guilty".  If there is great intelligence and sufficient evidence then these people should be given a trial and  convicted.  Having to resort to torture to draw out a confession that is unreliable at best is not conducive to the Western culture's ideals.

Therin lies a couple of problems.  Give them a trial.  Great.  Where, under whose jurisdiction?  Can't be in an American court, since presumably no laws were broken on American soil.  Most of these folks were taken while the government in the area they resided in was a shambles too.  The UN is out, because... well, they are useless, and more likely to just let them go with a pat on the back than take it seriously.  GITMO is/was closer to a POW camp than a convential prision you are thinking of.  These people are put there to keep them out of circulation until the conflict is resolved.  That is the way it works.  Innocent/ Guilty never even enters into it.  Is it fair?  Most likely not.  But life isn't fair and it beats getting dead.  The military tribunal was a joke.  They should have been stored and forgotten until everything was settled out. 

I do approve of intel gathering, even in creative ways, but general brutality is way uncalled for, and should be punished.  Then again, having seen some of their culture up close, they way we treat our prisoners in the US would be considered cushy, effeminate, lax, and unworthy of respect, so perhaps a bit the stick is called for to remind the prisoners not to try anything funny.  Perhaps some brutality kept the prisoners from being so dismissive of the guards that they might try to stage an escape, breakout, or riot.  How sad would it be if beating a half-dozen men and humiliating them can prevent a riot in which dozens may die?  Yes, that is completely hypothetical; I am only trying to show that sometimes situations are not completely cut-and-dried, and sometimes the people at the end of the stick may not know the rational for some of the things they are made to do.


The major problem that now exists is that if soldiers on the front line doing the door-kicking get jaded enough to assume that any prisoner can't (or won't) be used to provide needed Intel, and that they are just going to get let go to fight again, or even worse, get released into the US for some reason, well.... they might just neglect to take any prisoners.

imortal wrote:

The major problem that now exists is that if soldiers on the front line doing the door-kicking get jaded enough to assume that any prisoner can't (or won't) be used to provide needed Intel, and that they are just going to get let go to fight again, or even worse, get released into the US for some reason, well.... they might just neglect to take any prisoners.

Then they need to be tried as criminals the same as the terrorists.
Like here http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7902599.stm

Last edited by Dilbert_X (2009-02-21 04:05:20)