The sound of fingernails scraping across a blackboard is less grating than the voices of those who claim human rights violations of the al-Qaida fighters being held at Guantanamo. That these captured combatants are still alive is a gift they do not deserve.
The laws of God, nature and every nation declare the right of self-defense. When innocent people were viciously attacked by al-Qaida terrorists, the government of the United States was compelled to defend its citizens from future attacks – by any means it could muster.
Those means included huge bombs that obliterated people. The al-Qaida fighters and Taliban who fell victim to American bombs and bullets would not likely consider the plight of their Guantanamo brethren to be such a terrible violation of their human rights. Indeed, these captured al-Qaida combatants have but one human right remaining – the right to be judged by their creator. And as a proud American soldier observed, our job is to make the arrangements.
These people are not prisoners of war as defined by the Geneva Convention, as the U.N.’s Mary Robinson wrongly contends. Nor are they “entitled” to protections the treaty affords as a matter of “international law,” as Ramsey Clark insists. Al-Qaida didn’t sign the Geneva Convention, and al-Qaida is not a nation. Its soldiers are not conscripted nor are they forced to fight.
Al-Qaida is a club, joined voluntarily by people who are taught to hate America, who are taught to kill Americans, who live for the hope of dying while killing Americans. These people chose to abandon the rules of war fashioned by reasonable people; they are entitled to nothing more than the fate they try to impose on others.
Americans are compassionate people, but we are not stupid. Amnesty International contends that the transport of the captured combatants while shackled and hooded was a violation of “international norms.” What norms? What’s normal about people who hijack commercial jets and fly them into the World Trade Center, expressly for the purpose of killing as many Americans as possible?
What is normal? If a rattlesnake sneaked out of its den and attacked your child, would it be normal to capture the snake, move it gently to a safe place, feed it and protect it from any discomfort? I think not. What’s normal and prudent would be action that not only killed the snake, but also rooted out the den and totally annihilated all of the occupants.
The treatment provided to the captured combatants at Guantanamo is far better than they deserve. Terrorist sympathizers such as Mary Robinson and Ramsey Clark are more eager to find an excuse to criticize the United States and President Bush than to pursue justice for those caught in the act of war against Americans. Americans demand that justice be exacted from those who inflicted death and suffering upon thousands of innocent people. The railings of terrorist sympathizers, magnified by a media eager to stir controversy, is only designed to weaken and unravel the voluntary coalition of anti-terror support built by President Bush.
What are we to do with the captured combatants? Those who argue for the presumption of innocence and disposition through the American criminal justice system argue for foolishness. There is no presumption of innocence; these people were caught in the act of war against America. They are not criminals as defined by U.S. criminal code; they are not prisoners of war as defined by the Geneva Convention; they are captured combatants whose fate should be decided by the Department of Defense under the command of the president.
The president has correctly decided that they will face a military tribunal. And then what? Should we deal with them like a den of rattlesnakes? Should they be imprisoned and kept away from society for the rest of their lives? Or should they be returned to their homelands and released to organize another army of hate against America?
As this war against terrorism continues, thousands of terrorists may be captured. Robinson and Clark and their ilk will roar if we round up the terrorists and give them the rattlesnake treatment. If we keep them in prison, Amnesty International and their ilk will parade propaganda to the world about our “inhumane” treatment and Americans will soon grow weary of providing housing and food for our enemies. If we release them, they will reorganize and strike again.
What a dilemma! Perhaps the only way to satisfy everyone is not to capture the combatants, but instead help them find the 70 virgins they think await them.
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