Time to comment on this, because there are apparently a whole host of people who have their heads firmly planted in their asses in applauding this ruling from the United States Supreme Court.
The premise is that "we should apply Habeas Corpus to everyone we capture, everywhere, irrespective of the circumstances." That's the bottom line of the ruling.
Now here's why its stupid.
The United States Constitution only applies to United States Citizens while in the United States.
I am free to drink here in the US. If I go to Saudi Arabia, I am not free to drink. In fact, I can be jailed for drinking.
Their land, their laws. Follow them or go to jail.
Now - on the subject matter.
It is a long-standing principle of International Law and The Rules of War that if you are shooting at troops "out of uniform" you are not entitled to Geneva Convention protections. In fact, you are subject to being shot on sight.
The reason for this is really quite simple - when you do that sort of thing you are taking human shields in the form of the civilian population where you are.
This is seen as a seriously undesirable thing because it causes innocent civilians to die, and to deter it, The Geneva Conventions explicitly exempt people performing acts like this from its protections.
We caught these people outside of the United States. They are being fed and clothed. They are not being given the right to Habeas Corpus, nor should they - they are not US Citizens and were not apprehended in the United States. They further were engaged in hostile acts against our troops but were not wearing a uniform of an opposing force, and were explicitly seeking to blend in with the civilian population - effectively taking them as human shields.
Under longstanding International Law they were subject to being summarily shot. I would say we are treating them considerably better than what International Law says is both appropriate and lawful conduct on our part.
You want these people to be treated in accordance with US law? Ok, then tell me why we should not be subject to Sharia Law from a Muslim country while we are in the United States.
Oh, the shoe sucks when its on the other foot, does it?
Well gee, funny how that works. The "peacenik" folks would have a CAT if the women among them were forced to wear burkas under penalty of being caned!
So just what sort of hypocrites do we have in the USSC? Further, its obvious that these dishonorable men in robes can't read the damn Constitution or, more likely, they just don't give a good damn what it says - they wanted to come to a given result, so they did - and whether that was supportable by the black letter on the printed page didn't matter a bit to them.
This ruling places our nation and our people, here and abroad, in more jeopardy than they were before.
It also opens up other nations to being able to claim that OUR citizens, inside OUR border, should be subject to their laws.
Those of you who think this was a "victory for America" are smoking crack and need to put down the pipe.
And George Bush needs to grow a set of balls and tell the USSC that they have their ruling - now let's see them enforce it.
