Striving Against Opposition

Steyn on Iraq and the Geneva Conventions

Mark Steyn discusses the trendy call for the "Geneva rights" of insurgents to be respected by the United States. Steyn makes several points that I've simply held to be true for a long time while listening to people rant about how "unfair" it was for terrorists to be locked up in Guantonamo or lacking a proper trial.

Firstly, he points out they have no rights under the Geneva Convention:

To be covered by Geneva, a combatant has to have (a) a commander who is responsible for his subordinates; (b) formal recognizable military insignia; (c) weapons that are carried openly, and (d) an adherence to the laws and customs of warfare.

Essentially, if you want to be accorded the rights and priveleges of a civilized military force - act the part or you shall and should be treated as nothing more than the lot of blood thirsty brigands that you are. Armies used to simply summarily hang, shoot or otherwise slay partisans such as the insurgents, however, such efficacy would overly offend society delicate sensibilities at this point in time.

Secondly, Steyn raises the point what purpose does it serve other than to penalize your own military forces to expect them to accord their enemies with unreciprocal respect? If the terrorists intend to simply execute any Americans they happen to capture, does dithering about and making a fuss about the rights of terrorists really make sense? No, its simply interpreted as a sign of weakness by the terrorists and one need only look at the rather disgusting manner in which the Phillipines was blackmailed by their lack of nerves.

If only America had been somewhat more ruthless in its prosecution of the war in Iraq I'm quite convinced that the whole thing would be over already. However, the fear of bad optics has lead to a hesitation that's been rather detrimental to the whole endeavour. Although the media and public is largely to blame their knashing of teath and rending of hair over a by the standard of any previous war a trifling number of casualties. A thousand or so dead soldiers is not a quagmire, its not a defeat or a major setback when viewed with any historical perspective. The world wars which were both victories left millions dead. A scarce 500 or so years past wars were fought that not only lasted decades but more than a hundred years, and now we fight a war for 2, yes all of 2 years and its horribly stalled and unwinable. The rampant pessimism the liberal media exhibits is a farce and its a delight to see Mark Steyn skewer them for it.

posted by Chris @ 1/16/2005 02:14:00 p.m.