What if Americans were imprisoned, a la Guantanamo?

1. Our soldiers are legal combattants per the Geneva Conventions - they wear an identifiable uniform, identifiably fight for a country, conform to the rules of combat, etc.

2. The Gitmo prisoners are not legal combattants, and are not protected by the Geneva Conventions. They are not signatories to the convention, they do not abide by the rules of the convention, and are thus illegal combattants. Legally, they have no standing, and could just as easily have been summarily executed, as illegal combattants were in WW2.

3. Even if they were considered POWs, POWs do not go to trial or face charges. They are interned until hostilities are ended or by other agreements of the country that holds them prisoner.

This is basic stuff. If you had any knowledge of history or military history, you'd have known this.

-------------------------------

The only reason this would happen is if we were at war. Otherwise, it would be a casus belli - an actionable act of war and we would retaliate.

The Americans that are in prison in Chile (as members of the shining path) and in Columbia (as members of FARC) would tell you that the US government will not try to expatriate you if you knowingly break the law of a sovereign country. Especially if you are doing it as a member of an insurgency/terrorist group.

My question back to you. What would you have us do with these people? They're not just some guy that was walking down the road and we grabbed. These are people that were captured on the battlefield, carrying arms and openly fighting for either a terrorist organization (al Qaida) or a terrorist government (the Taliban). So, should we just let them out, so they can go back to Afghanistan and Iraq and continue operations?

It's time to grow up and realize that you can't always do things the easy way.

Sad thing is that there are several citizens in Cuba. You are not hearing about it because they are Muslims, and some Americans protray them as a violent group. However the most violent religious people are Chrisitans. There has been more blood shed in Christian wars then any other in history.

Iran did that for 444 days, they were called hostages. I think if they could any country would be concerernd about it and demand they be released, however we are the United States and we can do no wrong. My opinion is that Bush and his band of 8 are the evil doers and need to be tried for their crimes against humanity.

As an American, I wouldn't be too upset as long as the prisoners were picked up actively fighting as terrorists. (Just like the people at Gitmo.) I'd rather see people in jail than see their guts spread all over a crowded marketplace after their back-pack bomb explodes.

Hey, se roddy, we're actually talking about something that occured in the last thousand years or so. Look at the "wars" being fought right now almost all involve muslims. Hmmmm, can we interupt something form that???

Go in and free them unlike these cowards who are supposed to be so brave.

Exactly what does Al Qaeda mean again -

I think it's something along the lines of "hey dumb*ss, blow yourself up and if you get caught, you're on your own sucker".

Oooo now isn't that tempting.

Can we call it Camp "USA unsigned the Geneva convention" now get out of that!

we are theres been 1000s of reported cases of people getting arrested & disappearing. these cases are buried of course & hard to verify. the jose padilia case is the most well known. leonard pelitier is pretty well known. since bush took office there has been many more reports by news stations.

It happened, Iran 1979.