Quote:
Originally Posted by lchoy
. It’s a war on Terror, and he was in a middle of a battle. There is a whole legal quagmire set now because the US refuses to classify the Taliban fighters as soldiers (in which they have all the rights to the Geneva Convention and can’t be charged for murder and such for taking part in a battle). Instead, they are deemed “Enemy Combatants” and thus, they can be tried and they really don’t have any rights.
My issue is that he has been held for the last 5 years with out due course, he was a kid at the time of the incident, and in any other case, this would be a prisoner of war/child soldier that was defending the land of his origins against foreign invaders. .
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I'm more then curious about how the Geneva convention applies in any way shape or form in this instance. First and foremost, the Taliban which is not a legal government is not a signatory to any of the articles of the convention.
Secondly, the Geneva convention is extremely specific about people fighting that are not in uniform, or who murder civilians while not in uniform. none of these guys are wearing any kind of uniform and disguise themselves as civilians, therefore they are not protected under the convention and there is no due process. In fact you can basically march these people in front of a fire squad.
In the same way, Kadr is not considered a child soldier because he was not a member of any armed forces structure and did not wear a uniform, in fact he is part of a insurgancy which is Al-Queda which means that he is not afforded protection under the Convention or under the UCMJ or any nation state.
I guess I'm confused about the whole application of any kind of international law or application of the Geneva Convention in this case.