Here's
what we know: a few hundred Afghan Taliban fighters
and some of their al Qaida allies have been transported
across the ocean and imprisoned in an army base
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Granted, although their
living conditions sound primitive, they are probably
no worse than conditions were in the 12th-century
civilization the men left behind. The men are being
questioned.
Details
about other terrorists and terrorist activities are
needed, and, undoubtedly, the questioners are determined.
We hope the questions will be answered. But a question
for us is, are the men prisoners of war, and do they
have rights of any kind? And how much do we care, anyway,
after Sept. 11th?
Were
Nazi concentration camp guards treated as
prisoners of war?
What about the SS troopers
who did not elude our armies? The Japanese
who led the infamous "Bataan death march"?
Were the inhuman acts of these men enough to
reclassify them into some sub-stratum of mammal
that we could torture and kill with impunity?
Well, obviously the answer is "No." They
were questioned, there were answers, and then
they were tried according to the democratic
rules of the members of the free world, by
and in a free society. Tried, and, many of
them, convicted and punished. But their families
got to communicate with them, and some of them
had legal representation.
Now
to the Taliban "terrorists".
What is their status? Are they more dangerous,
more treacherous, more evil than the Nazis
and the Japanese were during World War II?
Are we to observe the Geneva convention concerning
prisoners of war, as we have always done and
have always demanded that other nations do,
too, or are we to discard our membership in
the union of civilized nations by writing our
own rules?
These men were captured as the result of an
act of war fairly proclaimed by an American
President. Isn't there a danger here that we
risk brutal treatment for our own men if one
or more of them are captured by the Taliban
or whomever we are fighting next in the Middle
East?
As
of this writing, the fate of Wall Street
Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl remains unclear,
but there has been at least one report that
he was killed by his captors. We are dealing
with vicious brutes in this part of the world
who are barely worthy of the name "human." But
do we want it said or thought that we are reducing
ourselves to their level?
|
