Nov 29 2001
We’re living in odd times
We’re living in odd times
and some of the rules we take for granted may not always apply. Take the Geneva Convention rules on prisoners of war, for example. According to the rules, prisoners have the right to food, water, shelter, and to not be harrassed or tortured.
They also have the right to not be slaughtered
. But how does the rule apply if the prisoners want to be slaughtered?
I know that sounds insane, but consider this: the “foreign” Taliban prisoners who were slaughtered this week near Mazar-e-Sharif had previously vowed to fight to the death. Also consider the kind of propaganda they are subject to by their own leaders. It’s like something out of a Jim Jones “People’s Temple” cult. Here’s an excerpt from a pro-Taliban “news” source, regarding a “martyr” who had dreamed of a beautiful woman who would meet him in the afterlife: On the 3rd day of Ramadan, corresponding to 19 November 2001, he was one of a group of brothers in a building that was hit by an American rocket. Abdul-Wahid was the first one to be martyred from this rocket, so congratulations to him for realising the dream that he had seen a year and a half earlier. (Emphasis mine.)
From their point of view, the prisoners had three choices: the humiliation of capture, the double humiliation of execution, or the glory of martyrdom in battle. The prison revolt wasn’t a breakout attempt, it was a mass suicide.
I’m not trying to be calous on this, and I don’t believe it justifies what in the end became a US/UK Special Forces turkey shoot. However, it is an indication of the extent to which a war like this has a whole new set of rules and assumptions to go by, many of which we have not yet sorted out or learned.
