"enemy combatants" the latest catch-all grab bag phrase for those who piss off uncle sammy ?
It's interesting how quickly they still love to just make up special labels and categories for people they target like, "enemy combatants" , or "terrorists", or "evil-doers" ,or "hostile indians" ,or "palestinian gunmen",or "militant shiite cleric" ,or "rioters" ,or "tax and spend liberals" ,or "seperate but equal", and then use the negative connotations generated by the names they created to help justify striping someone of their human rights .
there was even a woman author interviewed on npr who recently wrote a book saying the internment of Japanese- americans was justified during WWII because they were suspected of spying for japan-- although none were ever charged with treason or espionage by the US during ,or after the war .
The author (authoress ? ) was trying to not only justify the 40s era internment of Japanese-Americans , but she also was attempting to spin a case for the use of racial profiling in today's "war on terror".
Wonder how many domestically-grown, ebonics-speaking "hakim jacksons" would get picked up and interred along with the arabic-speaking , foreign-born "hakim jilalhuddin al-tikritis" ?
some of the guantanamo detainees claim that in Afghanistan the US was paying the Northern Alliance a reward for every al queda or taliban member captured .
these 'enemy combatant' detainees claim that basically they were civilians visiting relatives, and were captured by the Northern Alliance and sold to the US for the reward money .
considering how ahmed chalabi got more than 30 million US taxpayer dollars by playing the US neo-cons and telling them what they wanted to hear, perhaps the claims of some of those guantanamo detainees might not be too far-fetched .
for the sake of hypothetical example , let's say young Alex Haley IV travels the Gambia region of west Africa to connect with his family roots .
While visiting , conflict breaks out and the US intervenes to "stabilize" the region because west Africa is one of america's important suppliers of oil .
Trapped in the region for months as the conflict rages , young Alex IV sees on the regular , (take your pick ) local rebel militias , or troops of the local government, brutally repressing helpless civilians...including some of Alex's own relatives .
in the steadily deteriorating situation and growing chaos and lawlessness , maybe in the heat of the moment , Alex has no choice except to pick up a dead militiaman or government soldier's weapon and uses it to help protect the fleeing refugees --which include his own family members .
now the US has militarily intervened as an official ally on behalf of the side in the conflict that Alex is firing shots against.
if Alex is later wounded and captured by US soldiers , or soldiers of whatever puppet group is allied to the US (like the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan ), does this make young Alex IV an "enemy combatant" ?
Also , what if young Alex has witnessed war crimes and atrocities against civilians committed by western-trained and western-backed ,kill-crazed militias , or western-trained and western-backed , brutally vengeful government soldiers , or war crimes by some scared ,bewildered , underprepared US kids , easily spooked , heavily armed and lacking in fire control ? ... kids who never dreamed that when they signed up for the National Guard that they'd actually ever have to fight anybody , but now have been repeatedly shot at and repeatedly told by their superiors that "the way to get home ,is to destroy the enemy ".
what if captured 'enemy combatant' Alex the 4th then witnesses and is victim himself of sadistic and systematic torture carried out by the US ,or its allies in order to extract intel on some nonexistant Al Queda connection that the neo-cons want to find in order to help justify to simpleminded americans supporting bush ,bigger defense budget increases and the US military intervention into oil rich west Africa ?
could young Alex Haley IV ever expect justice from his 'captors' in such a situation ?
there was even a woman author interviewed on npr who recently wrote a book saying the internment of Japanese- americans was justified during WWII because they were suspected of spying for japan-- although none were ever charged with treason or espionage by the US during ,or after the war .
The author (authoress ? ) was trying to not only justify the 40s era internment of Japanese-Americans , but she also was attempting to spin a case for the use of racial profiling in today's "war on terror".
Wonder how many domestically-grown, ebonics-speaking "hakim jacksons" would get picked up and interred along with the arabic-speaking , foreign-born "hakim jilalhuddin al-tikritis" ?
some of the guantanamo detainees claim that in Afghanistan the US was paying the Northern Alliance a reward for every al queda or taliban member captured .
these 'enemy combatant' detainees claim that basically they were civilians visiting relatives, and were captured by the Northern Alliance and sold to the US for the reward money .
considering how ahmed chalabi got more than 30 million US taxpayer dollars by playing the US neo-cons and telling them what they wanted to hear, perhaps the claims of some of those guantanamo detainees might not be too far-fetched .
for the sake of hypothetical example , let's say young Alex Haley IV travels the Gambia region of west Africa to connect with his family roots .
While visiting , conflict breaks out and the US intervenes to "stabilize" the region because west Africa is one of america's important suppliers of oil .
Trapped in the region for months as the conflict rages , young Alex IV sees on the regular , (take your pick ) local rebel militias , or troops of the local government, brutally repressing helpless civilians...including some of Alex's own relatives .
in the steadily deteriorating situation and growing chaos and lawlessness , maybe in the heat of the moment , Alex has no choice except to pick up a dead militiaman or government soldier's weapon and uses it to help protect the fleeing refugees --which include his own family members .
now the US has militarily intervened as an official ally on behalf of the side in the conflict that Alex is firing shots against.
if Alex is later wounded and captured by US soldiers , or soldiers of whatever puppet group is allied to the US (like the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan ), does this make young Alex IV an "enemy combatant" ?
Also , what if young Alex has witnessed war crimes and atrocities against civilians committed by western-trained and western-backed ,kill-crazed militias , or western-trained and western-backed , brutally vengeful government soldiers , or war crimes by some scared ,bewildered , underprepared US kids , easily spooked , heavily armed and lacking in fire control ? ... kids who never dreamed that when they signed up for the National Guard that they'd actually ever have to fight anybody , but now have been repeatedly shot at and repeatedly told by their superiors that "the way to get home ,is to destroy the enemy ".
what if captured 'enemy combatant' Alex the 4th then witnesses and is victim himself of sadistic and systematic torture carried out by the US ,or its allies in order to extract intel on some nonexistant Al Queda connection that the neo-cons want to find in order to help justify to simpleminded americans supporting bush ,bigger defense budget increases and the US military intervention into oil rich west Africa ?
could young Alex Haley IV ever expect justice from his 'captors' in such a situation ?
posted by dsekou at 3:54 PM
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