Jim Sharkey It looks like the Taliban and Afghan fighters will be protected by the Geneva Convention after all.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20020207/D7HHC3107.html I'm not sure how we're going to differentiate between them and formal Al Qaida members though. Me: The way it should always have been done: treat em all under the Geneva Convention (and be seen to do so) and let the courts sort them out. I would hate to be the next US serviceman captured by any Axis of Evil (TM) state. After this hardline attitude of Rumsfield etc to not apply the Geneva Convention to anyone captured in Afghanistan, especially this idea that they were "unlawful combatants" who do not DESERVE to be treated under the Geneva Convention, there is an automatic out for anybody to do almost anything to them. Two words: Hanoi Hilton, cos that's at best the sort of treatment your guys are going to be getting. It's been a stupidly handled fiasco. And totally unnecessary. Under the Hague Convention, there is nothing to stop the US from bringing charges against anyone captured, Taliban, Al Qaeda or whatever, for war crimes. And war crimes can certainly be linked to what happened on 9 September. Apart, of course from the current President's unilateral stance preventing any involvement of the UN, and the fact that the death penalty cannot be applied to the guilty. So now, a month or more after going it totally alone (apart from gutless wonders like the current Australian government) the penny has finally dropped. I hope it doesn't happen, but I can't see Iraq or Somalia or some Colombian warlord going too kindly on your guys in the near future. Brett
