Rules: Shoot terrorists on sight
As I have pointed out on air, the rules state that terrorists can be shot on sight. Not rules put forth by Dick Cheney – but the rules found in the Geneva Convention that was agreed upon by countries across the globe. Because the international community wanted to stop terrorists (non-uniformed combatants) from wreaking havoc upon noncombatants.
But Western civilization has all but accepted terrorism as a legitimate way to fight and govern.
Does putting a bullet in a captured al Qaeda cell leader sound cruel and unusual? Not as cruel and unusual as allowing them to terrorize their own people, as al Qaeda and the Taliban are wont to do. Or as messed up as turning them loose on our judicial system, a move that will lead to the destruction of something that suicide bombers and hijacked airplanes couldn’t touch.
FrontPage has more on the situation with the upcoming court-martial of three Navy SEALs, whose capture of a high-value terrorist may or may not have resulted in a “fat lip.”
As far as legality is concerned, terrorists like Abed are lucky to be left among the living after their capture. As conservative columnist Thomas Sowell rightly points out, Islamic terrorists have never followed the Geneva Convention regarding the rules of warfare, as can be easily discerned in the case of the Blackwater security guards alone. More importantly, however, the terrorists themselves are not covered by the Convention’s provisions.
“Neither the Constitution of the United states nor the Geneva Convention gives rights to terrorists who operate outside the law,” writes Sowell.
Legally, under the Convention’s terms, the American military in wartime has the right to shoot any captured enemy not in uniform. Sowell states, “There was a time when everyone understood this” and cites World War Two’s Battle of the Bulge as an example. German troops caught in American uniforms during that battle were shot almost immediately and without trial. Their executions were even filmed and shown years later on American television with no fuss ever made regarding legality.
60-something years ago, the U.S. transitioned from a peacetime economy to simultaneously defeating the two greatest militaries the world had seen in no time flat. In fact, in the time we have spent fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, we would have won World War II twice by now. Our troops stopped the Wehrmacht cold, but we can’t seem to put a dent in a bunch of RPG-toting terrorists who want to turn the clock back to 600 A.D.
Perhaps the world would be better off if we abandoned the political correctness that affords Constitutional rights to those who have no regard for civilization. Perhaps folks like the aforementioned terrorist should be treated like we did the German spies – shot on sight.