Reid calls for Geneva Convention to be rewritten

[jeff_leigh]

Maybe Reid could "amend" the Geneva Convention to this - All is fair in love and war!

 

[dylanredefined]

Maybe Reid could "amend" the Geneva Convention to this - All is fair in love and war!

Rules of war are nesscary as human kind know that war without rules is even more barbaric .Their always going to be bent and broken either accidently or delibrately but they need to be there.

 

[Cadmus]

Geneva probably does need updating. Just look at gutamno bay debacle ilegal combatant rubbish. Even if they arent covered by geneva as a prisoner of war (you have to meet certain conditions to be classed as a pow) dosent mean you can do what you like to them.

I disagree - the guantanamo debacle had little to do with geneva's imperfections and a lot more with the intentional ignoring of international law by the us and its startling proposition that the us is free to treat detainees as it wishes. this was not a shortcoming of geneva but a devised strategy to work around it prepared by John Yoo and his team working for a 'new legal regime'.

the issue of pows was successfully rebutted by the red cross (which oversees the implementation of geneva) - they proved there's no concept of 'unlawful combatant' in geneva. (the US argued that bcos Al Qaeda terrorists belong to an organisation and not a state, they cant have POW status; the Taliban detainees were refused POW status cos they didn't display a fixed distinctive sign which is required by geneva).

however, geneva aside, there is a whole other body of international standards (prohibition of torture, human rights standards, habeas corpus, etc) which the us tried to ignore in guantanamo. this attitude - which is the core of the problem - will not change by amending geneva (which was already done in 1977 with 2 protocols).

 

[shagnasty]

what astounds me is that only those on the losing side face the charge of war crimes were as the action of the victorys is ignored now the british and americans could not have been complete angels in ww2 but none ever faced charges

 

[ZAMB]

Maybe Reid could "amend" the Geneva Convention to this - All is fair in love and war!

There would have to be some evidence of 'love' surely for this to apply - or do you mean the infatuation Blair has for Dubya??

 

[TAE]

... the british and americans could not have been complete angels in ww2 but none ever faced charges

Are you certain that none ever faced charges?

 

[Cadmus]

An insignificant minority faced charges (Horace T. West for instance) but the number of those who were investigated or prosecuted was considerably disproportionate to the number of attrocities committed by the allies. Post WWII justice is a textbook example of victor's justice.

 

[tangentlama]

More Cold War Classics ....

the Brass will be furious at this attempt to undermine their roles as 'Defenders of the Realm' and remake them as Dogs-of-War

the UKMoD have obviously been 'coached' into supporting attacks on the ME 'axis' by the US Administration following ConDie's visit with Jack Strawman.

 

[tangentlama]

"We risk trying to fight 21st-century conflict with 20th-century rules which, when they were devised, did not contemplate the type of enemy which is now extant," he said.

The rules came from 19th Century.

"The laws of the 20th century placed constraints on us all which enhanced peace and protected liberty. We must ask ourselves whether, as the new century begins, they will do the same."

he said 'new century'
Reid has 21st Century warfare technology and machinery at his disposal.

Laws such as the Geneva Convention had been drawn up at a time when the main threat of war was between states but the 21st-century world was under threat from terrorist groups unconstrained by any sense of morality or adherence to any conventions.

he's talking as though this were a new thing. terrorism is not new, it's ancient! if you can sneak into your enemy's camp at night, and steal a personal object from his tent, and send a messenger into his camp the next day to return it, then you can win a war with a thief and a postman, and avoid bloodshed on both sides.

"We now have to cope with a deliberate regression towards barbaric terrorism by our opponents," he said.

these 'opponents' never had any other way to fight. they weren't always fighters or terrorists either. in the case of Israel v Palestine, it seems many of the palestinian suicide bombers were in fact relatives of people who were killed unjustly (spin: 'collatoral damage') in extra-judicial assassinations or by crack squads of undercover arabised agents, and quite alot were university students leading a checkpoint-after-checkpoint by occupying forces. the situation in the UK is very different and does not facilitate a change of laws either nationally or internationally.

"The legal constraints upon us have to be set against an enemy that adheres to no constraints whatsoever."

again more spin.

The spread of weapons of mass destruction posed new questions about when it was right to mount a pre-emptive strike.

he's responding to the 'anti-Hague' US/IL Hawks' call for War against Iran.

"We know that terrorist groups continue to try to acquire such weapons and that they have described their willingness to use them," he said.

this is so vague i don't know where to begin. terrorist groups try for guns and bombs and rockets first. second. even if iran had nukes, they wouldn't fire nukes at israel or the southern states because nukes kill everyone, they don't kill only the 'the zionist enemy' they kill everyone. nukes make no distinction between enemy and brother.
iran hasn't attacked israel, and the recent 'shrapnel' findings which were used as 'proof' that Palestinian terrorists had managed to smuggle an Iranian rocket into Gaza, and during the most heavy curfews/border closures Palestine has ever seen. this 'evidence' is not enough to warrant a strike on Iran.

it seems that the Govt. have forgotten quickly how the People of Great Britain and Northern Ireland endured decades of Home Grown Terrorism from the IRA and various Neo-Fascist groups? or has it been some time since he has taken his head out of the 'Book that Bush wrote' to notice that there are still no rubbish bins at Leeds Train Station?

 

[likesfish]

maybe the need to be rewritten in phonics with lots of pictures so americans can understand them

 

[Poi E]

I bet army officers who heard Reid thought he was a silly cunt. They know that the GC isn't about cuddling the enemy, but ensuring that your soldiers will be treated well if captured by demonstrating your good faith in respect of combatants they capture.

 

[Jon_Xen]

I do not reject the Geneva Conventions

Reid has posted an article on Comment is free denying that he rejects the Geneva Conventions. Some interesting comments posted.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1747036,00.html

 

[nino_savatte]

What vacous nonsense is this? I was merely stating my own opinion whereas this seems to state nothing at all.

That isn't unusual for L&L, he forgets to engage his non-existent brain before engaging the keyboard.

 

[TAE]

Some interesting comments posted.

"Let me be blunt Mr. Reid, you are a liar. And your boss is a liar."

Nice.

 

[teqniq]

Nice indeed.
But will he take any serious note? Somehow I doubt it.