Ghost of a flea

Accuracy is a virtue. What I did say:

Frankly, if I'd been one of those yellow folks who dragged him from the lake where he'd landed, I'd have shot him on the spot. Two million Vietnamese were sacrificed on the altar of American warrior righteousness. They're still dying today from the after-effects of Agent Orange.

Having been spared napalm, flechette guns, white phosphorus and cluster-bombs, not to mention the toxin Agent Orange that is still taking its toll, my better nature is firmly in control. I remain a staunch adherent of the Geneva Conventions.

I trust you are now praying that no one shows Barack Obama the queen of diamonds?

Now I've seen almost everything.

Beyond parody.

Just of curiosity, what part of "my better nature is firmly in control" jives with "if I'd been one of those yellow folks who dragged him from the lake where he'd landed, I'd have shot him on the spot"? I obey the Geneva conventions as long as wartime hasn't made me cranky, but once it does, I will throw treaties out the window? Some better nature.

The Geneva conventions have a thing or two to say about the treatment of wounded POWs. I must have missed the part where it differentiates treatment for those suspected of dropping various kinds of ordnance.

Speakling of which, you are aware that Agent Orange can't be delivered by carrier-borne aircraft? Has to sprayed out of enormous tanks in UC-123 aircraft -- specially modified tactical transports.

If only there was some special word for assigning mass guilt to a population subset based on the actions of another, vaguely associated subset.

I merely wonder if my better nature would have come to the fore had I been a Vietnamese at that time and place. But my underlying point was that the Vietnamese, for all that they had suffered, did manage to show restraint, by keeping McCain alive in prison for six years rather than engaging in summary execution.

Do I support the Geneva Conventions? Without reservation. None of this "enemy combatant" stuff for me.

I didn't claim that McCain sprayed Agent Orange, by the way. The US forces of which he was a member, however, drenched the countryside with it.

For the left, the Geneva conventions only apply to non-signatories such as the Taliban or the Viet Cong when the treaty can be used as a stick with which to beat signatories such at the United States. They do not apply whenever the left decides it would rather celebrate the torture and dismemberment of downed airmen or if they decide non-uniformed combatants should have the same habeas rights as some guy in my neighbourhood who has parallel parked at a bus stop.

And for the sake of accuracy, Dr. Dawg only expresses opinions he can distance himself from if they reveal a little too much about his true loyalties.

But, as you have so eloquently stated, your observance of the Geneva convention will only extend to the point where your emotions overrule it. Such as finding an ememy pilot in a nearby body of water.

And let's not even discuss whether the VC or NVA were as punctilious in their observation of the conventions.

Principles which cannot endure temptation are something else entirely.

Chris:

Wouldn't make it right, though.

If you want examples of treatment of captured POWs by ARVN and US forces, by the way, I have a list.

The Geneva Conventions apply to everyone. I've never said otherwise.

Funny discussing all this on the site of someone who actually believes that Obama is a Manchurian president-elect. Beyond parody, indeed.

Feel free to take it back to your fever swamp, Dawg. This is my house and you will be polite or you are out the door. With that remark, you are barred.

WOW! I've never actually met a useful idiot, much less see one troll the comments here when he was accurately quoted.

Oh and for the Record:

"The Geneva Conventions do not recognize any lawful status for combatants in conflicts not involving two or more nation states. A state in such a conflict is legally bound only to observe Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and may ignore all the other Articles."

http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/COM/375-590006?OpenDocument

In other words, we should have shot Omar Khadr like the rabid dog that he is.

Absolutely. It seems there is no democratically elected government on Earth prepared to enforce its own laws - and ancient tradition - regarding piracy and sedition. No need to write any new statutes to deal with the problem (for example, New Labour's absurd newcrime of "glorifying terrorism" whatever that is supposed to mean). We just have to find it within ourselves to observe the laws our ancestors contrived for dealing with precisely the circumstances facing us now.

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