P.O.W. mistreatment

During World War II, Japanese Prime Minister and Minister of War, Hideki Tojo told the commanders of his POW camps, "guards must supervise their charges rigidly, taking care not to become obsessed with mistaken ideas of humanitarianism or swayed by personal feelings toward prisoners that might grow over a long incarceration."

It was his feeling, along with most of the Japanese Army that the Japanese would ultimately be victorious over the West. Along with this line of thinking was the mistaken view that they could get away with any mistreatment of their prisoners, because they would not ever be held accountable. In the end, Tojo, and others were eventually executed for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Japanese were especially cruel. Although the Geneva Agreements said officers could not be required to perform prison camp labor, most officers were forced to work under the direst of circumstances. Commanders of the camps made up their own rules. Prisoners could be punished for offenses as innocuous as whistling or biting their fingernails - and the punishments for these imagined offenses could range from a day in a hot box all the way to beheadings.

The Nazis for the most part, adhered to the accords of the Geneva Convention because they wanted their own soldiers treated right. They knew that as long as they treated American and British soldiers humanely, they could expect the same. This was pretty much the same attitude of the Allies. Axis prisoners were sometimes even treated better than the Geneva Conference called for. Many German soldiers preferred the treatment in stateside POW camps over the rigors, turmoil and life-threatening circumstances of fighting in the war.

Now it turns out that the powers that be in the United States military have decided that we don't really need to follow the rules of Geneva. Perhaps they, like the Japanese during World War II, believe we will ultimately be victorious and there won't be a final reckoning.

We have already seen the inhumane treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and have heard stories about what is happening down in our little part of Cuba. It should be fairly obvious by now that we are not following the rules our government signed off on. Further proof comes with word today that the Pentagon is pushing for a new policy on prisoner detention to leave out a major part of the Geneva Convention that bans "humiliating and degrading treatment", pointing to a potentially permanent move away from international human rights standards.

Folks, if you needed any more proof that the gang in power right now are cold, heartless thugs, you should be convinced now.

It's one thing to get a kick out of watching Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer using extreme measures to get information out of a prisoner on "24", but it is another matter entirely to think about our government using anything other than humane treatment on our prisoners - especially when one thinks about the fact that many of the detainees may have never done anything in their lives to warrant imprisonment outside of being born an Arab.