One nation underground
Old pal Martha sent me the following applicable excerpts from the Geneva Convention in relation to the shooting Marine/possible murderer in Fallujah:
"Geneva Conventions provisions Each of the four Geneva Conventions, the 1949 treaty that applies to different aspects of warfare, addresses the issue of military violence on injured, unarmed and/or civilian peoples in its opening paragraphs.
“Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat (out of combat) by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely,” it says.
“The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
“Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture...
“The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”
It adds that “the wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.”
Again, I must re-state, that neither I nor any of us so far removed from what specifically transpired there can summarily condemn the marine, but neither can we laud what he did. We don't know, and may never really know. What we do know, however, is that it looks mighty bad. From appearances alone, he murdered the ostensibly mortally wounded insurgent, which ought to be condemnable to the nth degree. We just can't tell what, if any, directly extenuating circumstances there may have been. I don't accept by any means the "war is hell" explanation. I would accept, however, the argument that the marine actually saw, or had other reason to believe that the injured insurgent lying on bombs he was about to detonate. I don't believe that this was the case, however. I just have to "borrow" this quote posted on Matt Good's website (www.matthewgood.org) from an Arab blogger -- it's too spot on to omit in this context:
Abbas Kadhim made a very astute observation on his blog yesterday…
“When a few Muslims do something horrific, the entire Muslim world is called barbaric. When a few American soldiers commit war crimes, they are called "bad apples" from a civilized nation.”
Oh Donald Rumsfeld, come out and play.....
"Geneva Conventions provisions Each of the four Geneva Conventions, the 1949 treaty that applies to different aspects of warfare, addresses the issue of military violence on injured, unarmed and/or civilian peoples in its opening paragraphs.
“Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat (out of combat) by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely,” it says.
“The following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
“Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture...
“The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.”
It adds that “the wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.”
Again, I must re-state, that neither I nor any of us so far removed from what specifically transpired there can summarily condemn the marine, but neither can we laud what he did. We don't know, and may never really know. What we do know, however, is that it looks mighty bad. From appearances alone, he murdered the ostensibly mortally wounded insurgent, which ought to be condemnable to the nth degree. We just can't tell what, if any, directly extenuating circumstances there may have been. I don't accept by any means the "war is hell" explanation. I would accept, however, the argument that the marine actually saw, or had other reason to believe that the injured insurgent lying on bombs he was about to detonate. I don't believe that this was the case, however. I just have to "borrow" this quote posted on Matt Good's website (www.matthewgood.org) from an Arab blogger -- it's too spot on to omit in this context:
Abbas Kadhim made a very astute observation on his blog yesterday…
“When a few Muslims do something horrific, the entire Muslim world is called barbaric. When a few American soldiers commit war crimes, they are called "bad apples" from a civilized nation.”
Oh Donald Rumsfeld, come out and play.....
posted by Paul V. Regelbrugge at 10:23 AM
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