Remember how we were told that if we beat ourselves bloody over perceived violations of the Geneva Conventions, the Islamist butchers who might capture our troops later would suddenly agree to follow them?
Well, those people were idiots.
KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. military denounced on Sunday the release of a video showing a soldier captured in Afghanistan, calling the images Taliban propaganda that violated international law.
The video shows the soldier in traditional Afghan dress, being prompted in English by his captors to call for U.S. forces to be withdrawn from Afghanistan.
Using a captured soldier as a propaganda vehicle is expressly forbidden by the Geneva Conventions. That, however, did not stop the North Vietnamese from doing it, nor did it stop the Islamists from recording their excruciating slaughter of Nick Berg.
And it’s not stopping the Islamists in Afghanistan either.
The soldier’s name is Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl. He is 23 years old and from Idaho. He is being held prisoner by people who are not soldiers, who have no regard for our rules of war, and who will kill Pfc. Bergdahl in the most heinous manner they can imagine the very moment they believe they can gain propaganda value from it.
I sincerely hope our Commander in Chief has given express orders to rescue Pfc. Bergdahl and kill every Islamist, by hand if necessary, within a 500-mile radius of where he is being held.
Assuming the Geneva Conventions allow it, of course. We wouldn’t want to be seen as uncivilized or anything.
Tags: Fighting the Islamists
In addition to the idea of reciprocity, there are so many other reasons for our military to respect the Geneva Conventions. Among these are maintaining discipline in a unit and contributing to an easier recovery after that fighting has ended.
The Geneva Conventions and international law are complex; one of the best ways to help people—both from the United States and overseas—understand the importance of respecting them is to ensure they are taught in schools.
***There’s a petition out now– Protect the Vulnerable in War: Teach the Geneva Conventions– found at http://bit.ly/RCpetition Sign now to ensure people understand the Geneva Conventions.***
Natalie, the idea of reciprocity doesn’t work.
The problem is not that our soldiers don’t understand them. They do. In fact, the Geneva Conventions are, by all accounts, drilled into our soldiers’ heads at several points in their training and again while they are in active service. If anything, our soldiers are made hyperaware of their obligations to enemy soldiers under the conventions to which we voluntarily adhere.
However, Islamists do not adhere to those rules. In fact, as I have said often enough here, they use our adherence to those rules as a weapon to harm us further. I think it is extremely naive to think that by flagellating ourselves and demanding perfection from our soldiers we are impressing people who have no problem sawing someone’s heads off with a knife and videotaping it. In fact, I not only believe it’s naive but dangerously ignorant of the world around.
If we’re going to be good citizens of the world, we need to see the word as it really is instead of how we wish to see it.