Um ... What? 0.o

[the_gneech]

The LA Times is reporting that The Pentagon wishes to omit certain Geneva Convention bans from its operations manual.

WTF?

Have any other sources confirmed this? The Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian are reporting on the story as well, but they're basically quoting the LAT article.

This is not acceptable.

-The Gneech

Comments

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

Yup, The San Francisco Times talked about this on Monday.

It sucks, and it's insane. It's not final until the guidelines are made public, but thankfully the State Department opposes it and is trying to get the Pentagon to reconsider.

[sanity-cheque.livejournal.com]

So much for "moral high ground" :P

The point of the Geneva convention is not just to give YOUR troops a guideline for how to treat enemy combatants, but to give your troops the confidence that the ENEMY they fight also follows the same rules.

The problem, currently, lies in the fact that the enemy combatants we're fighting don't actually qualify as such under the geneva convention. They are specifically barred from coverage the moment they take up arms against a uniformed troop, while not wearing the livery and blazons of another nation's troops. Plus, they (the current enemy) doesn't play by the geneva conventions rules when it comes to handling their captives.

I don't agree with what the pentagon is doing, because it removes us from the so-called "moral high ground", not that we actually are on it anymore anyway, but by taking those guidelines out of the doctrine, we're saying to the world (and not just the insurgents) that our troops are no longer required to follow the Geneva Convention under any engagements. This, in my humble opinion, constitutes A Bad Thing™ and should not be done.

[jedi-iwakura.livejournal.com]

That is downright disgusting. We shouldn't set these rules aside just because our current opponent doesn't seem to give a crap--if we do, then that not only brings us down to their level of barbaric warfare AND sets a horrible precedence for any full-scale problems we may face as a people in the future!

X( I've never been one for the "theater" and grandiose, glorifying behavior of war, but that totally undermines the whole Freedom and Honor crap this administration is force-feeding us now...!

[athelind.livejournal.com]

As I said in my own journal: Even the NAZIS paid lip-service to the Geneva Conventions.

[rhanlav.livejournal.com]

What the Dook? Thats just dook'ed up right there. So.. uh... when is government supposed to be getting sane? This is just... O_o?

--Salen

[the-lizard-rat.livejournal.com]

I posted this in indigoskynet's LJ...

It seems to me the only way to fix the disease is to kill the entire "body" and start from scratch. Unfortunately, I think that if the entire body were killed, the resulting chaos as people tried to say "I'm the new ruler!" "No, I am!" "No, ME!" would only result in even MORE chaos. We'd end up worse in the long run.

*shrugs* Way for our forefathers to paint ourselves in a corner. Bet they never expected THIS level of stupidity.

2_gryphon's rant on Voting really makes sense... I'd say go to his site and listen to it...

Lizard Rat out.
Definately saying WTF in Albany NY