Unintended SCOTUS Consequences - "Just Shoot Them"
By Skanderbeg Posted in Archived — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
This is something that's been in the back of my mind since last week's SCOTUS Boudimene (sp.?) decision. Commenting on it was catalyzed by this listed comment over at today's opinionjournal.com from a reader by the name of George Mead:
"The Court has begun unraveling the Geneva convention, which made soldiers respect ethical limits on killing enemy combatants. This problem will not be solved, as the Court intends, by jurisdictional brief, but at the point of a rifle. A dead man has no standing for a writ of habeas corpus."
I've been saying something like this for a couple years whenever Eurotwerps (or the Canadian sub-species thereof) whine at me about "Gitmo." (For some reason, Eurotwerps are obsessed with Gitmo - much more so than Americans.)
Basically, as far as I can tell, taking jihadists prisoner is an extension of a courtesy. As far as I can tell, since they are clearly unlawful combatants, we'd be perfectly within our rights to simply shoot them on the spot whenever any of them are captured. This was basically British/Royal-Navy policy back in the good old days of piracy; pirates, being outlaws, weren't entitled to any quarter as captives, but if captured were simply hung immediately.
The unintended consequence of Boudimene may be to push things in that direction....
But I have to think all that intelligence we've been getting has been part of why we've suffered no major attacks since 9/11.
That, combined with Ashcroft's round up of illegals, and of course just going and smashing up their safe havens abroad, are the big three parts of Bush's legacy that *saved lives*.
anymore because of this ruling....It does not behoove us to bring them back alive now. I didn't want this ruling I think Gitmo is the perfect place as I suspect other (secret) places are...but the Supreme Rulers have made a decision and we as a country have to adapt to that decision...ergo I am not unhappy with the end result but I suspect liberals will be ;-)
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by the Germans to shoot at Allied soldiers. The Allies executed captured Werewolfs.
The Court had no business overriding the Congress and the Executive, and will no doubt ignore the law of unintended consequences. It always does.
Presuming that the SCOTUS decision results in us killing off any terrorist captured in the course of battle while we're still in Iraq and Afghanistan saving peoples' butts out there, thereby giving the Left an excuse to call our soldiers in uniform "baby killers" again. Now suppose that the captured terrorist who would otherwise be brought over to be interviewed would've had information that could prevent the next major attack on US soil.
Where would our so-called "liberal" friends be once they raise their heads up to see thousands more of our fellow citizens, maybe even millions killed because the lucky terrorists were able to carry out their dream job of nuking an American city? Would they be happy with that?
Talk about suicidal tendencies...
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I read something about this years ago...something a Special Forces person in Afghanistan wrote after seeing one of their captives released by the local prison. Something to the effect of "oh, ok, so that's how it's going to be."
The law around captives, like any law, has to be crafted so that it doesn't create these situations. For example, Louisiana's law permitting execution of a child rapist, while deserved, would create the unintended consequence of giving the rapist no reason NOT to kill the child. If the criminal commits the capital offense there is no greater punishment, thus no reason not to commit another crime, especially if it makes it harder to get caught.
This also makes an argument for super-capital punishment, which could include more gruesome and painful options.
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I kind of thought I said this a couple times over on the original habeas thread...
Am I imagining it?
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
I think more of our soldiers than that they'd just start mass killing everyone so as to not have any survivors.
Our Military is so filled with Goodness and Justice that they'll still capture people instead of killing them, knowing that thanks to the SC, those capture folks may be released in a few weeks.
Our soldiers are many things, but those things are all Good things. Slaughterer isn't one of them.
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Freedom of Religion NOT Freedom from Religion