Anyone who has been paying attention to the news knows that people are dying in the streets in Egypt. Dave mentioned it earlier. And they have started parading Coptic Christian nuns through the streets as "prisoners of war". Their term, not mine.
"Prisoners of war". If they are invoking the terms of the Geneva Conventions by using that phrase, they are alleging that their captured enemy had been identified solely because of a device or insignia worn or attached to their clothing and distinguishable from a distance. Link.
However, that ignores the other requirements that they be: 1) commanded by a person responsible for their behavior; 2) carrying arms openly; and, 3) conducting their own operations in accordance with the laws of war.
Problem is that the ones doing the parading are ignoring the obvious. Link 2. "Members of the medical personnel and
chaplains while retained by the Detaining Power with a view to assisting
prisoners of war, shall not be considered as prisoners of war."
Given their treatment of non-Muslims captured in the past, I expect these nuns will not make it until the end of the week with their heads still attached, never mind the probability of rape and other desecrations.
But here in the US, the main news involving our nation's chief executive is not how he is manfully standing up to these sub-barbaric monsters, but that Obama got a new PUPPY!!!!! SQUEEE!
Is it any more possible for me to hold this once-great nation in such disdain? The nation I put my life on the line for?
Yup.
Burn it down. Salt the earth where it once stood. Try again from scratch. (Omaha would make a good capitol. Or Pueblo, CO.)
Bomb it.
ReplyDeleteBomb it again.
Then make the rubble bounce.
Back in the Somalia days, I was on active duty, and talked to a few of the guys who had rotated through there. He said his solution was, "Better guns, better training, and then seal the borders."
ReplyDeleteIn other words, let them solve the problem for us, which is exactly what is happening in Egypt and Syria. It's like a warehouse fire in a slum. No real hurry to save the building, you just want to make sure the fire doesn't spread. That should be our approach in both situations over there...containment.