Bad Headline

This morning's Boston Herald on the newsstands has a blaring headline:

'They are not human beings'

This is referring to the 911 conspirators going on trial down at Gitmo.  It is a quote, so The Herald can claim it isn't THEIR opinion, but still, filling 40% of the front page, it is screaming at us.

This is unacceptable.  It would seem even The Herald realizes that, since a search on their search engine for that headline turns up nothing.

I am not saying these are nice people.  They may be to their own family and friends, but one wonders.  For sure they are warriors, soldiers in a fight against us.  If they had died on some far-flung battlefield no one but their friends and relatives would have even noted the event, except as a statistic.  But, they are fellow human beings.

Given that they are warriors, fighting under the cloak of the late and unlamented Osama bin Laden, they should, IMHO, be treated as soldiers.  We should not be trying them.  Rather, we should be locking them away in some POW Camp until the termination of hostilities, until the United States and al Qaeda have a peace treaty, or at least an armistice allowing for the exchange of POWs.  And, frankly, I would put their POW camp in the northern reaches of Minnesota or North Dakota.  I would give the Red Cross or Red Crescent daily access.  However, I would not let them go, since they are POWs in an ongoing conflict.

As for this trial, which has been on-again, off-again for ten years, I would drop it.  These men were doing what they thought was correct and got caught.  Much as we may not like it, terrorism is part of warfare.  When the conflict is just emerging we treat this "Phase I" activity as a law enforcement issue, but this has moved beyond that.  Put them in a POW camp.

For those who argue that al Qaeda is not a signatory to the Treaties involving Armed Conflict, I say, let us be magnanimous in our treatment of these men.  Give them the honor of treating them as POWs and then put them away for the duration and forget about them until the end, when we, as the winner, will be able to look on them with some benevolence.  In the mean time, no suggestion that these men are other than fellow human beings, as misinformed and misguided as they may be.

Regards  —  Cliff