Quote:
Originally Posted by glatt
Once you have a prisoner in captivity however, the rules change. You are in complete control of the situation. It's no longer a messy war situation, but a prison situation. The rules of law should apply because you are back in civilization.
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I know what you are getting at. And I sort of agree. I am not sure that the problem lies with what we do to the high value targets of whom we are sure of their importance and value as the vetting of all the prisoners captured. I think back to the days of WW2 where our soldiers were kept in pretty poor conditions and the Germans we captured were actually brought to working farms where they had a lot of local freedom to work, move about, and purchase goods, and in some cases even travel. But times have changed and although war and the WOT specifically has changed many of the rules of conventional combat. The enemy is non-specific and not easily identified. IMHO, all they know and respond to is a certain degree of brutality and ruthlessness, anything less is a weakness to that kind of enemy. It brings about many mixed emotions for many reasons. I don't have the answer. But I know the answer is not easily defined by ill conceived UN Conventions which everyone ignores and only provides a bully pulpit for the detractors and critics.