Widow Testifies at a Military Court

[kandrathe]

Um, we can the debate the reasons for the US going to Afghanistan after paramilitary (terrorists) outfitted and trained there to hijack multiple planes and fly them into assorted buildings in the US.

Are you saying that the people in Afghanistan deserve these razzias because of their role in 9/11? Someone better tell them that! (ICOS survey)

Why? Did the people of Hiroshima or Nagasaki deserve to be incinerated or burned by nuclear fire? War is the horrific result of failed politicians. Innocent people never deserve to be killed or conquered. But, it happens when Islamic militants who trained in Afghanistan flew their missiles into US buildings. The response is to work to stop it.

92% of respondents in the south are unaware of the events of 9/11 or that they triggered the current international presence in Afghanistan

How many Germans were unaware their government was exterminating Jews? The purpose of being in Afghanistan was to deny Al Queda a safe haven. The effort began to fail as soon as we built up an illegitimate Afghan government, that we need to defend physically, and provide cover for morally.

Strange, though. Bin Laden is Saudi, and most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudi's. Saudi-Arabia is a strong fundamentalist Islamic nation, and has a very poor human rights record. Yet, Afghanistan gets bombed for 8 years, and Saudi-Arabia is allowed to buy $60 billion worth of militairy equipment. (article).

The US and Europe deal with the extremists to get their oil cheap. Why do you think Saddam had chemical and biological weapons? Why were the French so eager to build him nuclear reactors? Beyond that... They sit on Mecca and Medina, and so have ultimate influence over 1/6 of the worlds population.

No. I recall he did not.

Since you can answer for him, let me ask you this: if the 'unlawful combatant' status of Gitmo prisoners is not his legal ground to keep them there, what would it be?

I won't speak for Occhi.

You should read the following links;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlawful_combatant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions

Generally, war is without rules. We try to follow some. When soldiers wear uniforms, armies know who to shoot at. When they don't, armies tend to engage in actions brutally killing innocents ferreting out the "unlawful enemy combatants" from the civilians.

the point is he used weapons in an attempt to kill (this is not to be taken lightly) against the army which captured him.

Is that a crime, if you are not wearing a uniform? Against what law exactly? In which country? I read somewhere that in the USA it's actually proper 'code of conduct' to kill in order to defend against arrests by foreigners (even if those are backed by international law), or against those that threaten to change your way of life.

Yes, it really is against the law (international) to engage in warfare without a uniform.

I read that the Dutch kill off their old people. We can have a reasonable discussion about barbarity.

Hey, stupid, I said I'd kill to protect my way of life. Kill. Got it? I even agreed to abide by the Code of Conduct, which means I would give my life, and kill, for our way of life.

Next, when you cite international law, by all means, come into my country and try to arrest my people. I'll shoot to kill, be it Obama you are after or Cheney.

Yeah, so what?

It's pretty common for people in the US to have allegiance to the US, and the defense of the US constitution. Hence, this is why treaties like Kyoto have very little appeal, even to those of us who are ecologically minded. We don't mind working with Europe, but we'll make our own decisions, with or without Europe.

Most Americans would not feel bound by political kangaroo courts in Den Hague. When we start calling each others leaders criminals, we are moving closer to war. Like Occhi said, if Europeans try to come the the US to enforce international court decisions, the citizens would rise up against it, even if our own corrupt federal government were complicit.

Generally, the citizens of the US are against the ideas of the Bilderberg Group and would rather retain our national sovereignty. I think most Americans still have that strange understanding of "liberty" which caused our little struggle back in 1776.