Obama to revive Gitmo tribunals

WillRockwell said:

Oh, you are saying the detainees are innocent? How do you know that?

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I am saying what I have maintained all along: That these terrorists, being non-US citizens, acting on non-US soil, have been entirely beyond the jurisdiction of US law. They are not criminals for the simple reason that their bloody deeds are not crimes. Where the law does not apply there can be no crime. The competence of US courts ends at US borders, and all evil that transpires beyond US borders is not a crime under US law.

Goobieman said:

Yes... with the first thing being the announcement that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to a conflict such as this, as they were intended to deal with behavior in a war between states. As thats not what we have here, they cannot effectively apply.

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celticlord said:

I am saying what I have maintained all along: That these terrorists, being non-US citizens, acting on non-US soil, have been entirely beyond the jurisdiction of US law. They are not criminals for the simple reason that their bloody deeds are not crimes. Where the law does not apply there can be no crime. The competence of US courts ends at US borders, and all evil that transpires beyond US borders is not a crime under US law.

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And this is exactly why it has been so tremendously hard to handle these individuals. To the western world, they have broken every Geneva Rule of War. Which makes them criminals. However, they believe that everything they do is absolutely witin their rights when conducting warfare, because they do not subscribe to the manners of war laid out at Geneva.

Since 9/11 we have argued in the West on whether or not they are enemy combatants or militant super criminals. Its the West that continues to try to have it both ways and it all goes back to a set of rules created at geneva that do not apply to this 21st century enemy.

Instead of relying upon anchient outdated western conducts of war against an enemy who plays by his own set of rules, we need to update these rules and give our fighting players (military, CIA, etc.) a chance to win.

It never surprises me how we as a western civilization can all agree that when it comes to economy, society, and health in an ever changing, "globalizing" world, that the rules and guidelines change. But when it comes to international conduct between borders (19th century "soveriegnty" laws) and Western Geneva rules of law in the very same ever changing, "globalizing" world, that nothing is supposed to change or update and everything, no matter how obsolete or ridiculous, is set in brittle concrete.