Well, as long as it doesn't apply
You know, I'm less worried about the legal ins and outs of who is and is not covered by the Geneva Convention than I am by the fact that we (meaning the US under the Bush administration) are apparently looking for loopholes to let us exempt certain detainees from torture.
"Such transfers have been used by American officials in the past three years in part to subject suspected members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban to interrogation practices harsher than those permitted under the Geneva Conventions or under American law. American officials have defended such practices, including a technique in which a prisoner is made to believe that he will drown, as essential to extract information that may be useful in preventing terrorist attacks."
Now, do I particularly want to go easy on these people? No! But I do think that by stooping to such tactics, we advance their goals for them. By nitpicking the letter of the GC, rather than following its spirit, we place ourselves into the exact same mindset the terrorists use. We identify some of "them" as unworthy of considerations that we're willing to assign to most human beings, making it ok to do things to them that are generally not ok to do to another human being, even in time of war. Not only is it ok, but it is in service to some mythical "greater good" to do vile things to other human beings in order to prevent them doing other vile things to us.
All this can do is perpetuate and even exacerbate the problem of terrorism. By trying to legitimize it, all we do is taint our own country with the exact same disregard for humanity that we claim to be trying to eradicate. If we continue down this road, then I fear the terrorists have, indeed, won.
"Such transfers have been used by American officials in the past three years in part to subject suspected members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban to interrogation practices harsher than those permitted under the Geneva Conventions or under American law. American officials have defended such practices, including a technique in which a prisoner is made to believe that he will drown, as essential to extract information that may be useful in preventing terrorist attacks."
Now, do I particularly want to go easy on these people? No! But I do think that by stooping to such tactics, we advance their goals for them. By nitpicking the letter of the GC, rather than following its spirit, we place ourselves into the exact same mindset the terrorists use. We identify some of "them" as unworthy of considerations that we're willing to assign to most human beings, making it ok to do things to them that are generally not ok to do to another human being, even in time of war. Not only is it ok, but it is in service to some mythical "greater good" to do vile things to other human beings in order to prevent them doing other vile things to us.
All this can do is perpetuate and even exacerbate the problem of terrorism. By trying to legitimize it, all we do is taint our own country with the exact same disregard for humanity that we claim to be trying to eradicate. If we continue down this road, then I fear the terrorists have, indeed, won.