But it is not the same. It would be like the Viet Cong conducting whatever they were conducted but ensuring that no actual soft tissue damage occurred and there would be no physical harm to come from the act, which is what we did when we waterboarded the admitted masterminds of 9/11.
Our treatment of these people is not going to have any impact on how our soldiers are treated when captured. We treated many Taliban soldiers who followed the Geneva Conventions as POW's as already have released them. There were some crossovers, but they were not the norm. Depending on who captures our people, they are going to be treated normally, unless a terror group is the one that captures them and then they will be treated poorly regardless of how we treat anyone.
We "tortured" three people who were openly involved in carrying out the worst attack against the United States. If you study the mentality of these people, see some of their plans, and their goals, it really is not hard to go along with waterboarding only three people.
You do not have to have a uniform, you have to have some form of an emblem. But when you hide among the population and wear suicide vests under women's robes to avoid detection I hardly call that an organized and declared conflict.
I do not say anything that we do is OK and justified, but in the case of what we have done, I think it has all been OK so far. I think the biggest American value is the protection of the country and our way of life, and if waterboarding someone like KSM gives us an advantage in that, then so be it. The war that we are fighting is one that we cannot afford to lose in my opinion.
This is a bit of a stretch in my view. I have always said that US citizens and those who abide by the rules of war should be treated as such. If you do not however, you should expect none of the treatment that you would otherwise get.
I think as much as people hate Bush, there is no real legal case they can bring against him for war crimes trials, and that upsets a lot of people. I think that if this does go to trial, we will see the most partisan country ever, and then follow it up with acquittals.
I will agree with Democrats when they take measures to protect the country as well. I agree with Obama that some of these people cannot be tried or released. I agree with Obama that we need continue to take the fight to the terrorists, but there is a lot of stuff that I disagree with him on as well. It is a not an issue of party on this one, if Clinton had done this, I would be behind him 100% on this issue.
