Al Queda receives unwarranted rights
Last week Al Qaeda won a major victory. No, their victory didn’t come in Iraq or Afghanistan. Their victory came in the United States Senate and was carried out by Senators who broke precedent by extending the Geneva Convention Article III to Al Qaeda terrorists.
The Geneva Convention is one of the best foreign treaties that America ever entered into. Created in 1849, it has spared the lives of many on and off the battlefield. However, Geneva Convention rights don’t apply to everyone and never were meant to. The article in question before the Senate was Article III which defines prisoner of war and the conditions one may live in while detained. Since Al Qaeda soldiers do not belong to a nation, they do not qualify under clearly defined terms as prisoners of war.
One of the biggest problems with this bill is according to Article III, “Prisoners of war who refuse to answer [questions from military] may not be threatened, insulted or exposed to unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.” This presents a moral quandary for our soldiers. On one hand, the soldiers will have to follow the Geneva Convention and will be unable to interrogate them. On the other hand, they will have to uphold their duties of protecting America and must interrogate them. How does the United States Senate expect our military to perform their job of preventing attacks when they have lost one of their most important resources for stopping attacks?
Let’s take a hypothetical situation. A family member of yours was just killed by a savage group. You have in custody someone from this group that knows where future attacks will take place. It’s very possible that if this savage group is able to attack again it may lead to the death of other people in your family. Wouldn’t you be willing to allow that murderer an “unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment” if it meant that you could gain information to save those you love?
This isn’t an issue of human rights; it’s not even an issue of retaliation. The only issue here is life and death, and not of terrorists’ but of us. Any one of us could have been on the wrong plane or in the wrong building on Sept. 11, 2001. These terrorists that are being detained aren’t poor, misguided souls. They are cold-blooded killers. We have to stop them or they will attack again.
We talk about making sure that detained Al Qaeda terrorists have suitable conditions and rights. And heaven forbid that we don’t give them freedoms allocated to a prisoner of war. But my question is, where were the Geneva Convention rights for 2,973 Americans that died on Sept. 11?
What rights did Al Qaeda give them?
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Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Sep 22 2006. Filed under Opinion.
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