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Antisocial
X-Rays By
NR Editors |
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 he
European elite has finally objected to the treatment of prisoners
in Cuba. Of course, it's not the political prisoners tortured by Fidel
Castro, but the captured Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists held in Guantanamo
Bay by the U.S. who are the objects of their solicitude.
By any reasonable standard, the prisoners there are being treated humanely, especially given the temporary nature of the facility and the dangerousness of the detainees. They are receiving food, shelter, and even copies of the Koran. But the stringent security measures — the see-through cages, the hoods when in transit — are necessary. For these prisoners, every surrender is a possible prelude to a prison riot, every visit to a hospital a possible set-up to a suicide attack. That's because these detainees aren't soldiers, but part of a murderous gang that exists outside all civilized strictures. The Geneva Convention does not apply to al Qaeda members, since they did not, as required by the convention to qualify for its protections, wear proper uniforms, answer to a responsible chain of command, and abide by the rules of war (or sign the treaty, for that matter). They are war criminals. Now, the administration has yet to say clearly whether it considers Taliban as well as al Qaeda prisoners unlawful combatants. If it does not, it is obliged to hold hearings to sort out the legitimate prisoners of war. The conditions of Camp X-Ray are not meant as a de facto punishment; the camp should be a temporary expedient for penning the prisoners up until they can be dealt with appropriately, which for the unlawful combatants means a trial before a military tribunal followed by either a swift execution or long-term imprisonment. One reason that critics want the administration to agree that the Geneva Convention applies to all Guantanamo prisoners is that it would afford them the same legal rights that apply to U.S. soldiers and thus let them circumvent the military tribunals. But the fact that the al Qaeda detainees need to be tried at all should point out the absurdity of considering them POWs; real POWs aren't tried, but simply held and released at the end of the conflict. To obscure these distinctions is to blur the difference between civilization and barbarity. Members of al Qaeda chose the latter, and we have no obligation to protect them from the consequences of that choice. |
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