[Paslode]

Originally Posted by afchic

Unfortuantely our government has not classified them as POWs. If they had this probably would not be the hot button issue it is today.

I am not trying to be a smart ass but first of all how do you have a war against a tactic? When do you predict the War on Terror is going to end? Is it when the United States no longer has to deal with terrorism, or is it when it is abolished from the world as a whole and no nation has to endure it. If so then we must identify what exactly is terrorism. For arguments sake lets say that the definition of terrorism is: The use or threateneduse of violence, directed against victims selected for their symbolic representative value, as a means of instilling anxiety, transmitting one or more messages to, and thereby manipulating the preceptions and behavior of a wider audience.

Is it only terrorism when it is something that we don't like, therefore it is used as a pejorative term? Or is it a tactic and as a tactic it is used not only by our enemies, but us as well? Many throughout the world would classify the firebombing of Japan and Berlin as an act of terrorism, but we do not because we are the ones that did it. As McNamara once said, if we had lost WWII he would have been tried as a war criminal for his part in firebombing Japan. Based on the definition of terrorism above, the bombing of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan can be said to be a terrorist act.

So if we are indeed fighting a war against a tactic, that implies there is no end to such war. So what do we do with these enemy combatants? And if we are justified in holding them, what is to say that our own military personnel will not be held in the same manner by our enemies, not only in this war, but wars of the future.

Additionally, nowhere did I suggest they should be released unless they were found not guilty of the charges brought against them.

I know the QPs have a different perspective on this than I do. And my experiences are no where in the same constellation let alone the same universe as yours. But I have loved ones who are in combat, so this question is just as imperative to me as it is to you all. If this matter was based solely on what is happening on the battlefield then it would not be an issue in my estimation. We would keep on keeping on. But this is now a matter in the political realm, and as much as we may not like it or agree with it, it will not be solved by us in the military. It will be solved in the political arena.

You bring up an interesting point in that the detainees were not declared Prisoners of War. And the key word there is war. Common sense says we are at war with terrorism, but our Government has not issued a legally binding Declaration of War. So I am guessing that legally (BS in text form) you cannot have POW's and the form of justice predicated towards POWs without a Declaration of War. And since we are not at War in the legal sense is not legal to process a 'Detainee' in the same manner as a POW.