OT - Why America's Repuration is Important. Why HOW We Fight is as Important as Who and Where we Fight.

[Hey, Bushies, you'd better start SwiftBoating this guy...]

[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/opinion/25rieckhoff.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin[/url]

Do Unto Your Enemy...
By PAUL RIECKHOFF
Published: September 25, 2006

IN 2002, I attended the Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort Benning, Ga.
At "the Schoolhouse," every new Army infantry officer spent six months
studying the basics of his craft, including the rules of war.

I remember a seasoned senior officer explaining the importance of the Geneva
Conventions. He said, "When an enemy fighter knows he'll be treated well by
United States forces if he is captured, he is more likely to give up."

A year later on the streets of Baghdad, I saw countless insurgents surrender
when faced with the prospect of a hot meal, a pack of cigarettes and
air-conditioning. America's moral integrity was the single most important
weapon my platoon had on the streets of Iraq. It saved innumerable lives,
encouraged cooperation with our allies and deterred Iraqis from joining the
growing insurgency.

But those days are over. America's moral standing has eroded, thanks to its
flawed rationale for war and scandals like Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and
Haditha. The last thing we can afford now is to leave Article 3 of the
Geneva Conventions open to reinterpretation, as President Bush proposed to
do and can still do under the compromise bill that emerged last week.

[There's more, much more, but I'm sure dbu's, n5shar's and scott in
florida's lips and fingers are already over-tired. Check the NYT web site,
if you like.]




--
Posted via a free Usenet account from [url]http://www.teranews.com[/url]

What a bunch of crap, the US abides by the convention, to which it is a
signatory, the terrorist do not. They do not even abide the rules of war,
they do not wear a uniform and they target civilians and cut off heads of
prisoners. Ask the Senator, who is doing all the pious bitching, if the
North Vietnamese treated him as required by the convention. Ask the vets of
WWII if the Japs treated them as required by the convention.

mike hunt


"DH" <dh@stargate.com> wrote in message
news:4517cd42$0$19696$88260bb3@free.teranews.com...[color=blue]
> [Hey, Bushies, you'd better start SwiftBoating this guy...]
>
> [url]http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/opinion/25rieckhoff.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin[/url]
>
> Do Unto Your Enemy...
> By PAUL RIECKHOFF
> Published: September 25, 2006
>
> IN 2002, I attended the Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort Benning, Ga.
> At "the Schoolhouse," every new Army infantry officer spent six months
> studying the basics of his craft, including the rules of war.
>
> I remember a seasoned senior officer explaining the importance of the
> Geneva Conventions. He said, "When an enemy fighter knows he'll be treated
> well by United States forces if he is captured, he is more likely to give
> up."
>
> A year later on the streets of Baghdad, I saw countless insurgents
> surrender when faced with the prospect of a hot meal, a pack of cigarettes
> and air-conditioning. America's moral integrity was the single most
> important weapon my platoon had on the streets of Iraq. It saved
> innumerable lives, encouraged cooperation with our allies and deterred
> Iraqis from joining the growing insurgency.
>
> But those days are over. America's moral standing has eroded, thanks to
> its flawed rationale for war and scandals like Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and
> Haditha. The last thing we can afford now is to leave Article 3 of the
> Geneva Conventions open to reinterpretation, as President Bush proposed to
> do and can still do under the compromise bill that emerged last week.
>
> [There's more, much more, but I'm sure dbu's, n5shar's and scott in
> florida's lips and fingers are already over-tired. Check the NYT web
> site, if you like.]
>
>
>
>
> --
> Posted via a free Usenet account from [url]http://www.teranews.com[/url]
>[/color]

DH, 9/25/2006, 9:31:35 AM,
<4517cd42$0$19696$88260bb3@free.teranews.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> [Hey, Bushies, you'd better start SwiftBoating this guy...]
>
> [url]http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/opinion/25rieckhoff.html?_r=1&hp&ore[/url]
> f=slogin
>
> Do Unto Your Enemy...
> By PAUL RIECKHOFF
> Published: September 25, 2006
>
> IN 2002, I attended the Infantry Officer Basic Course at Fort
> Benning, Ga. At "the Schoolhouse," every new Army infantry officer
> spent six months studying the basics of his craft, including the
> rules of war.
>
> I remember a seasoned senior officer explaining the importance of the
> Geneva Conventions. He said, "When an enemy fighter knows he'll be
> treated well by United States forces if he is captured, he is more
> likely to give up."
>
> A year later on the streets of Baghdad, I saw countless insurgents
> surrender when faced with the prospect of a hot meal, a pack of
> cigarettes and air-conditioning. America's moral integrity was the
> single most important weapon my platoon had on the streets of Iraq.
> It saved innumerable lives, encouraged cooperation with our allies
> and deterred Iraqis from joining the growing insurgency.
>
> But those days are over. America's moral standing has eroded, thanks
> to its flawed rationale for war and scandals like Abu Ghraib,
> Guantánamo and Haditha. The last thing we can afford now is to leave
> Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions open to reinterpretation, as
> President Bush proposed to do and can still do under the compromise
> bill that emerged last week.
>
> [There's more, much more, but I'm sure dbu's, n5shar's and scott in
> florida's lips and fingers are already over-tired. Check the NYT web
> site, if you like.][/color]

Idealism and realism are two completely different things. When your
enemy will not honor the Geneva Conventions and you become severely
hampered by doing so what benefit is there to doing so? I really wish
we would take off the kid's gloves and tell the media to shove it.
Then we could get down to fixing the problem much quickly.

--
"No poor bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by
making other bastards die for their country." ~ George Smith Patton

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:31:35 -0500, "DH" <dh@stargate.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Check the NYT web site,
>if you like.][/color]

ROFL....

The Terrorists friendly newspaper?

No thanks...


--

Scott in Florida