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"US violated Geneva Conventions" - Gen Petraeus

OutoftheBox

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This is very compelling. This came from Gen Petraeus today.


Raw Story US violated Geneva Conventions, Bush Iraq commander says

US violated Geneva Conventions, Bush Iraq commander says


By John Byrne

Published: May 29, 2009


The head of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus, said Friday that the US had violated the Geneva Conventions in a stunning admission from President Bush’s onetime top general in Iraq that the US may have violated international law.

“When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Conventions we rightly have been criticized, so as we move forward I think it’s important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those,” Gen. Petraeus said on Fox News Friday afternoon.
 
Well the Republicans have always claimed that Petreaus is a smart and wise general...now he is proving them right.
 
The only problem I have with this is that the Geneva conventions only apply to uniformed solders representing a government. Or at least that is what I have been lead to believe all these years.

Terrorists do not have the protection of the Geneva Convention. So why is the general trying to say we did?
 
This is very compelling. This came from Gen Petraeus today.


Raw Story US violated Geneva Conventions, Bush Iraq commander says

US violated Geneva Conventions, Bush Iraq commander says


By John Byrne

Published: May 29, 2009


The head of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus, said Friday that the US had violated the Geneva Conventions in a stunning admission from President Bush’s onetime top general in Iraq that the US may have violated international law.

“When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Conventions we rightly have been criticized, so as we move forward I think it’s important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those,” Gen. Petraeus said on Fox News Friday afternoon.

I guess it's breaking news that he admits it, but it's certainly not breaking news the we violated the Geneva Conventions.

So, is the Petraeus' mea culpa?
 
The only problem I have with this is that the Geneva conventions only apply to uniformed solders representing a government. Or at least that is what I have been lead to believe all these years.

Terrorists do not have the protection of the Geneva Convention. So why is the general trying to say we did?

Well that was my first thought. I think Bush made it very clear that we are not honoring the Geneva Convention because it makes very clear who is protected and who is not.

Extremists with no country who hide behind old ladies and wear no uniform are not included in the Geneva Convention.
 
The only problem I have with this is that the Geneva conventions only apply to uniformed solders representing a government. Or at least that is what I have been lead to believe all these years.

Terrorists do not have the protection of the Geneva Convention. So why is the general trying to say we did?


Probably because he was trying to make a point which is now being absurdly overblown by people who not only despise Petraeus but call him a liar in all things.

Read what he says for what he was saying and ignore the tripe applied to him by people who despise him.


In hindsight he'd probably say the use of Geneva was wrong and may be misunderstood. But even if he did try to correct it you know as well as I do those using him and it would ignore him.
 
“When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Conventions we rightly have been criticized, so as we move forward I think it’s important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those,” Gen. Petraeus said on Fox News Friday afternoon.

Petraeus made the comment in the context of being asked about the Bush administration’s so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” The now-Central Command chief said he believed that banning the more extreme techniques had taken away “a tool” employed by “our enemies” as a moral argument against the United States.

Petraeus didn’t say which parts of the Geneva Conventions he thought he and other administration officials had violated.

Asked about a “ticking time bomb” scenario — which is often employed by torture’s defenders — Petraeus said that interrogation methods approved for use in the Army Field Manual were generally sufficient.

“There might be an exception and that would require extraordinary but very rapid approval to deal with but for the vast majority of the cases our experience… is that the techniques that are in the Army Field Manual that lays out how we treat detainees, how we interrogate them, those techniques work, that’s our experience in this business,” he said.

He also acknowledged that the US prison at Guantanamo Bay has inflamed anti-US hostility.

“I do support is what has been termed the responsible closure of Gitmo,” Petraeus said. “Gitmo has caused us problems, there’s no question about it. I oversee a region in which the existence of Gitmo has been used by the enemy against us. We have not been without missteps or mistakes in our activity since 9/11 and again Gitmo is a lingering reminder for the use of some in that regard.”

“I don’t think we should be afraid of our values we’re fighting for,” he added. “What we stand for and so indeed we need to embrace them and we need to ope rationalize them in how we carry out what it is we’re doing on the battle field and everywhere else. So one has to have some faith I think in the legal system. One has to have a degree of confidence that individuals that have conducted such extremist activity would indeed be found guilty in our courts of law.”

Why do you think we honor the Geneva Convention? Only because we don't want our troops tortured or because torturing anyone is wrong? Do we champion human rights all the time or only part of the time?

So many ignorant individuals on this forum have described those opposed to torture or calling for the U.S. to take the moral high road as being "weak kneed" and we "didn't have the stomach to do what it takes." They challenged us as being out of touch with reality when we talked about fighting the good fight and doing what's right.

So I just have to ask this, given General Patraeus' comments in this article: Is the good General "weak kneed?" Because he calls for us to embrace our values and abide by our promises regarding our commitments to honor Geneva convention (which he clearly states we violated), does he not have the stomach to do what needs to be done?
 
Well the Republicans have always claimed that Petreaus is a smart and wise general...now he is proving them right.
He may be smart, he may be wise, but he's a damn jackass for making this statement.

Military personnel do not comment in public on policy, and do not criticize the Commander-in-Chief in public. Not ever. Petraeus should not be offering up such evaluations to the media--not while he's on active duty and holding a commission in the US Army.
 
He may be smart, he may be wise, but he's a damn jackass for making this statement.

Military personnel do not comment in public on policy, and do not criticize the Commander-in-Chief in public. Not ever. Petraeus should not be offering up such evaluations to the media--not while he's on active duty and holding a commission in the US Army.

So why is it when Petraeus was giving praise to Bush policy's was he taken as credible, but now that he is doing the same with Obama he isn't credible?

Oh yeah, I forgot, Dem president, so some righties have to undermine the presidency any way they can.
 
US violated Geneva Conventions, Bush Iraq commander says

On FOX News, General David Petraeus made a stunning admission, that the US violated Geneva Conventions in its treatment of prisoners, and Petraeus also stated that the responsible closure of Guantanamo needs to be done.

“When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Conventions we rightly have been criticized, so as we move forward I think it’s important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those,” Gen. Petraeus said on Fox News Friday afternoon.


Petraeus made the comment in the context of being asked about the Bush administration’s so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” The now-Central Command chief said he believed that banning the more extreme techniques had taken away “a tool” employed by “our enemies” as a moral argument against the United States.
I commend David Petraeus for standing up against torture and mistreatment of prisoners, and I also commend him for calling for closing down Gitmo. He is a brave man because, no doubt, he knows that he is about to be attacked by the hyperpartisan crowd as part of a Liberal conspiracy to spit on America.

Every day, another event happens that kicks a card out from under the hyperpartisan house of cards known as talking points. Yesterday, it was Mancow. Today, it is Petraeus. Tomorrow it will be another Conservative, military man, CIA agent, or someone else. And, card by card, the whole hyperpartisan argument is being laid waste, as it should be. This is America, and we do NOT torture.

Article is here.
 
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Re: US violated Geneva Conventions, Bush Iraq commander says

Oops, seems that somebody beat me to this. Mods - Please merge this with the other thread. Thanx. :)
 
He may be smart, he may be wise, but he's a damn jackass for making this statement.

Military personnel do not comment in public on policy, and do not criticize the Commander-in-Chief in public. Not ever. Petraeus should not be offering up such evaluations to the media--not while he's on active duty and holding a commission in the US Army.

Actually it is allowed. I actually took a one day class on the subject in the navy. There are rules, but it is allowed.
 
He may be smart, he may be wise, but he's a damn jackass for making this statement.

Military personnel do not comment in public on policy, and do not criticize the Commander-in-Chief in public. Not ever. Petraeus should not be offering up such evaluations to the media--not while he's on active duty and holding a commission in the US Army.

Where did he criticize the Commander in Chief?
 
Funny how the supporters of the Iraq war claim that it is a legal war and then say the enemies we capture are not prisoners of war and subject to the protections of the GC. That's like saying you're a murderer but then the people you kill are not victims and shouldn't be counted in your trial. I love it when people play with words.
 
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How can one violate the Geneva Concentions when the Geneva Conventions don't apply to the people in question?
 
He may be smart, he may be wise, but he's a damn jackass for making this statement.

Military personnel do not comment in public on policy, and do not criticize the Commander-in-Chief in public. Not ever. Petraeus should not be offering up such evaluations to the media--not while he's on active duty and holding a commission in the US Army.

Maybe if the Nazi troops and generals had the balls to speak up instead of following half assed leaders a few less Jews would have been killed. Hmmmm did you think of that.
 
How can one violate the Geneva Concentions when the Geneva Conventions don't apply to the people in question?

How can a world leader like the U.S. abandon it's commitment to human rights and use series of legal arguments to try and mask the barbarity it perpetrated on it's prisoners?
 
How can a world leader like the U.S. abandon it's commitment to human rights and use series of legal arguments to try and mask the barbarity it perpetrated on it's prisoners?

Let's try this again...

How can one violate the Geneva Concentions when the Geneva Conventions don't apply to the people in question?
 
How can a world leader like the U.S. abandon it's commitment to human rights and use series of legal arguments to try and mask the barbarity it perpetrated on it's prisoners?

Because they thought they were above the law. They aren't.
 
Let's try this again...

How can one violate the Geneva Concentions when the Geneva Conventions don't apply to the people in question?

So this makes it right. That entire administration should be in jail.
 
Let's try this again...

How can one violate the Geneva Concentions when the Geneva Conventions don't apply to the people in question?

I think if the Iran Military started waterboarding American civilians, the right would be screaming for blood. You bet your ass it would be wrong then.
 
So this makes it right. That entire administration should be in jail.

How can one violate the Geneva Concentions when the Geneva Conventions don't apply to the people in question?
 
I think if the Iran Military started waterboarding American civilians, the right would be screaming for blood.

That begs to question, What would the left be doing?
 
Let's try this again...

How can one violate the Geneva Concentions when the Geneva Conventions don't apply to the people in question?

Apparently Petraeus is smart enough to see through the bull**** obfuscation that was the "legal argument" the Bush administration used to justify torturing our captives.
 
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