This socalled “war on terror”
Digby over at Hullabaloo goes straight to the heart of the matter:
There is another name that fits these terrorists a little bit better than an “unprecedented, non-nation state decentralized threat that operates without regard to borders and observes no distinction between combatants and civilians.” They’re called “criminals.” These international criminals do not represent a “nation” but what might be called a gang or a syndicate or a “family.” They can be brought to heel the same way criminal gangs can always be brought to heel. One of the ways that you do it is by enlisting the help of other nations in the manhunts with cooperative police and international quasi military investigations.
The fact is that this isn’t a “war” by any reasonable definition. However, the powers that be have deemed it so, in which case they should not be able to change the rules of warfare to accomodate what isn’t a war in the first place. If it’s a war, then it’s a war, which means that quaint little treaties like the GC cannot just be tossed at will. If it isn’t a war then we should follow the criminal model and use the laws and rules that have been established to to deal with this. This is a bullshit flim-flam that should have been nipped in the bud at the very begining, but because the leadership and opinion makers of this country (including you Andy — and you too Tom) decided that this was a good opportunity wallow in their own self righteous bloodlust instead of using their heads, we are stuck in this ridiculous position where we have elevated a bunch of criminal thugs to the status of warrior kings — exactly where they want to be.