A piece by Max Boot in the L.A. notes an overlooked irony–‘on the day that the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision on the rights of detainees, Al Jezeera showed footage of the execution of an American GI.
Pfc. Keith Maupin, the U.S. soldier, was given no right of appeal, no visits from the Red Cross, before being shot.
“Where was the ACLU to protest this lack of due process?” asks Boot.
“Where’s the outrage of the ’international community’? Why isn’t Michael Moore making a film about Pfc. Maupin, or about captured Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, 24, who could join the growing list of Americans beheaded by our fanatical foes?”
Boot is not suggesting that the Supreme Court decisions were necessarily wrong, or that we should treat our captives the way Maupin was treated.”But Maupin’s case does suggest an inherent naivete in how we think about these matters,” he argues.
The Geneva Conventions, which governs the rules for handling prisoners in signatory nations, Boots notes, are a product of Western rationalism and utterly unenforceable.
“By all means,” Boot concludes, “let’s retain the moral high ground by treating our captives humanely. Give them the right of judicial appeal. Allow them to complain to the Red Cross. Hand them cozy slippers and fluffy robes. Just don’t expect our enemies to reciprocate our kindness.”