The due process of detention

I agree completely. Though, I can see the other side in this, or a possible defence of civil trials for terrorists. Because they are not in a regular military, they do not wear uniforms or any other form of unique identifiers to show them as combatants, they do not participate in regular military training, and they do not follow the laws of any nation, let alone the Western laws regarding warfare, combined with the fact that there is no clear guidance under the Geneva conventions regarding civilian combatants, as terrorists are technically civilians; they fall, as a result, under civil legislation.

 

I say that they are civilians, and that there is no clear guidance, because large-scale Terrorism is  relatively new occurrence, and one that intentionally falls outside traditional military definitions or strategies. The fact that they should be tried by the government of their own nation is countered with the fact that the Afghan legal system is not trusted by the West with regards to humane treatment of prisoners leads to the situation we are currently facing. Under the earlier articles of the Geneva Convention, a military tribunal could try them as spies, I suppose, and they could have been shot. But those articles are no longer in effect, and to try and reinstitute them would be both a gross human rights abuse, and a war-crime. Gone are the days of firing-squads at dawn, and “shoot, shovel, and shut up.” The reasons for abandoning these practices are just, but the finding and implementation of alternatives has never really begun.

 

The enemy of today have changed the rules on us, now we need to change the rules ourselves. But the groups who are mandated with such issues, the UN, the international courts, even NATO, have shown them selves impotent in such matters. Nations will not support anything that is inconvenient to their own ends, they are hesitant to commit resources for enforcement of institutions that they do support, and if the number of NATO nations pulling troops from Afghanistan over the last few years is anything to go by, even if they DO commit resources, they will not do so for a long term, or with any clear plans for implementation.

 

The war on Terrorism is a quagmire, and the only things that are clear in this fight are the threat, and the challenges in facing it. The solutions are far less strait-forward. And since most democratic Governments only think in terms of re-election, the long term goals and strategies required to solve these problems are unlikely to win support, let alone be fully planned out and initiated. Lets face it, no one wants to deal with these issues, because they are controversial, and they are controversial because they need to be dealt with....