scribblings from a deist transhumanist libertarian minarchist citizen soldier

Saddam Hussein’s underwear fiasco with a different flavor

Posted by Trevor in under other on May 23rd, 2005 | View Comments |

Preston over at Six Meat Buffet has an interesting thought or two regarding how to deal with the Saga of Saddam and the Mysterious Case of the Tighty Whiteys.

Remember folks, his Geneva Convention rights were violated! As a dictator, he always followed the Geneva Conventions to the letter. While feeding the prisoners into plastic shredders guards were often reminded to treat the screaming victims with the respect and dignity they deserved. Saddam’s torture and rape squads were always meticulous about following Geneva Convention rules when they raped and murdered the wives of dissenters.

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Trevor

How we treat our prisoners will not affect how people like Al-Zarqawi treats his. In my opinion. I suppose I could be wrong, but after watching the videos of men holding other men down and sawing their heads off, I doubt it.

I'm sure we have people on the American side capable of doing such heinous things, but there would never be any widespread organizational support for such acts. That is what gives us the moral high ground in this conflict.

J. Buckley

In the grand scheme of things, it's definitely not a huge deal, at least not until there are any kind of serious repercussions from it. I just don't think it helps our credibility or global standing much when we can't seem to follow even minor guidelines of the Geneva convention like that. My main concern is how captured Americans are treated as a result of our treatment of others. As for the Rumsfeld comment, that was more upsetting on a "blech" level than on a moral outrage level really.

Trevor

Jason,

Please don't hesitate to argue in the future, if that is what you feel is called for. If Donald Rumsfeld is one day a prisoner, and I see him in his underwear, it won't be particularly upsetting to me.

If I were taken prisoner, and they showed me in my underwear, it wouldn't be particularly upsetting to me. I think I'd worry about other things.

Not that I'm anti-Geneva Conventions or anti-humane treatment of prisoners. Far from it. I believe in human dignity. But the idea of a brutal dictator being humiliated by being shown in his underwear just isn't that big a deal. It's not proper, but it's not really all that terrible either.

J. Buckley

Trevor, I'm definitely not trying to be argumentative, I just think that if we're supposed to be enforcing the Geneva Convention, we need to be following it to the letter for credibility's sake. And besides it sets a dangerous precedent. If someday somebody like Donald Rumsfeld winds up on trial for war crimes, do we really want to see him in his underwear?

Trevor

Jason,

I won't argue with you.

If I were in charge, I might mete out a slap on the wrist to the offending guard (or whoever took the photos). However, I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over the situation.

No, we shouldn't condone the behavior, but it should be examined in the proper light - as a rather insignificant issue in comparision to Saddam's own tally of activities.

Thanks for stopping by.

J. Buckley

I realize that comparing torture and murder to underwear pictures is like comparing apples to volkswagons, but if we can't abide by the Geneva convention in such a minor way as not sending out shots of the guy in his undies, we lose a little bit of the moral high ground, don't ya think?