US defends images of Saddam Hussein (Saddam NOT a POW)

[papau]

US defends images of Saddam Hussein

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1520&ncid=1520&e=2&u=/afp/20031216/pl_afp/us_iraq_saddam_geneva_031216204921

Rumsfeld declined to categorise Saddam as a prisoner of war -- a status that would require him to notify his captors only of his name, military rank, date of birth and regimental serial number."He is being accorded the protection of a POW but he's not being legally described as one at this stage," Rumsfeld said.


The United States has previously faced criticism over its decision to designate captives in its campaign against global terrorism as "enemy combatants" and not prisoners of war. A top legal expert in Geneva said earlier Tuesday it was not up to the United States to decide how Saddam should be classified.



A senior US official meanwhile told The New York Times that Saddam, captured by US forces near Tikrit, could see his status change if it was determined that he played a role in attacks against non-military targets after May 1 this year.


The US considers that the military conflict with Iraq ended at that date. But Sandoz said prisoner of war status remained while a country was under occupation, or for at least a year after a conflict was over.



Comment: There are those that disagree

Sen. Robert Byrd: "I become ever more convinced that the war in Iraq was the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place for the wrong reasons."
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031229&s=byrd

But it is hard to get past:

"Those who doubted whether Iraq or the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, and those who believe we are not safer with his capture, don't have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be elected president," U.S. Sen. John Kerry

[Spentastic]

1. Doublethink required

He is being treated as a POW but he is not a POW

"Those who doubted whether Iraq or the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, and those who believe we are not safer with his capture, don't have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be elected president," U.S. Sen. John Kerry

That's a dangerous statement and could condemn his bid.

[mbperrin]

2. Gosh...hmmm. are we in a war? Is SH a prisoner? Or is he free to walk

at any moment?

Even for a long line of totally arrogant dipshit comments coming from Rummy/Skeletor, this is the dumbest yet! He actually thinks he can make me believe something just because he says it. He's half-right, because if he said the sun rose in the east this morning, I'd have to check!

Say, when is Donnie going to re-create his 84 handshake with SH, especially as he's not a POW and all?

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. He is treated no differently than the regime wishes US troops treated

The US is the unquestioned leader of the world, setting the standards for human rights and compliance with the Geneva convention.

Currently, there are well over 100 thousand Americans deployed outside the US and subject to capture at any time.

[Spentastic]

4. Er?

Are you kidding? There is the small problem of that place in Cuba.......

It is not for the U.S to decide who is a POW and who is not.

[sistersofmercy]

5. DF is stating that they are setting the standard of how they would like

our troops to be treated in a similar situation. It's actually a scathing remark towards the misadministration.

[DuctapeFatwa]

6. I have wondered why the families of the troops are not in the streets

over this.

Maybe because so many of them have small children, and don't want to risk being disappeared or reprisals against their kids.

[sistersofmercy]

7. I think that most people are incapable of looking at circumstances

from all sides, this country tends to feed and nuture a myopic view.

[smb]

8. On The Other Hand....

[freethought23]

11. LOL

nm

[bobthedrummer]

9. This is all window dressing for the first Bush show trial

during an election year-it will be bigger than HUAC and the McCarthy hearings, Goebbels would be so proud of Bush, just like Poppy.
:puke:

[northzax]

10. it's not actually that hard to get past Kerry's quote

Those who doubted whether Iraq or the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, and those who believe we are not safer with his capture, don't have the judgement to be president or the credibility to be elected president," U.S. Sen. John Kerry


I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Democracy, this grand little experiment in government, is a process. what matters is the process of government, moreso than the results. The fact remains that we were consistenly informed by our government that Saddam Hussein, with his world class collection of chemical, biological and pending nuclear weapons, was an imminent threat to the US. We were told that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were bosom buddies, planning and scheming to kill Americans. AS of six months after the conquering of Iraq, I await any evidence that either of these were true. The Iraqi army was impotent, civil society crumbling, the infrastructure in ruins, and the nation isolated from the world community. Any day now, I expect to be shown videotape of one of Saddam Hussein's secret weapons factories. Without that, this war was waged on false pretenses. Totalitarian states keep impeccable records, I expect to see the ones detailing the reasons we were given for the invasion any time now. Without evidence that any of the US accusations against Iraq concerning weapons or terrorism were, in fact, true, the end result of the invasion is, frankly, irrelevant.

If, in fact, Iraq ends up as a peaceful democracy uninfluenced by any foriegn government, the Iraq war, as waged will still be wrong. THe ends do not justify the means in this case. If it was so important to try Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity, the US government should have told us that's what they wanted. They should have told us that freeing Iraq was the reason for the war. But they didn't. Democracy requires transparency. Without it, we are no longer a democracy, and perhaps I'm just being selfish, but I would rather have my government responsive to me than the needs of people in a foriegn land. We were lied to, don't forget that, the sacraficing of 200 years of American democracy to eliminate one of dozens of dictators, whilst leaving the rest in power is distasteful to me.

So, Senator Kerry. A question for you: Please give me the names of any Americans killed by Saddam Hussein between 1992 and 2003. Please provide me with the details of any Saddam Hussein supported act of terror that threatened anyone outside Iraq since the liberation of Kuwait in 1991. And then write those names in letters to families of the US soldiers killed in Iraq this year. Write them personal letters explaining how their son or daughter's death served to protect the US by avenging all the Iraq supported murders of Westerners between 1992 and 2003. Send them photos of the chemical weapons laboratories our troops has destroyed, of the biological weapons siezed and taken out of circulation. of the nuclear weapons Iraq was threatening us with. If the intercontinental missiles he'll never fire at us, of the armies massed to assault the US or our allies. And then explain to them that their sacrafice was worth it. Explain to them why the liberation of Iraq was so important that their government, their president, had to lie to them to get their support. Explain to them why US companies are provided protection in Iraq while charging the army $2.50 for a gallon of gas, while the Iraqi government sells it for $.50 a gallon? Explain to them why the army can't provide them with real flak jackets? Tell us, Senator, are we really safer than we were in February of this year? Or just when we consider that 400 brave young men and women have already died? 400 soldiers for one impotent dictator? Did Iraq pose anything resembling a threat to the US? how? using what?

allow me to recap: Saddam Hussein is a complete waste of DNA. If there is a god in heaven, or any semblance of one, I am convinced he will rot in hell for all time. it is a good thing he is gone, but was it worth the price of our dignity, self respect and form of government?

[kentuck]

12. Does that mean the Red Cross is not permitted to see him??

To check his condition to see if he is being tortured? But we wouldn't do that, would we?