GOODY TWO SHOES: The Geneva Conventions For Jihadis
At a Town Hall meeting in Des Moines, IA, on June 1st, John McCain was asked about his views on torture, and he repeated just about word-for-word what he said in the second Republican debate (video link):
Every retired and active duty military officer that I know says we shouldn't torture people. General Colin Powell, all of these others who have had the responsibility of leadership because they fear that if we torture people what happens to their soldiers when they are captured. We don't want that to happen to men and women serving in the military.
The Stiletto has heard this explanation pretty much verbatim several times now, and finds it very unsatisfying. Jihadis and terrorists are not fighting in an organized army under the flag of a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, and are not bound by its anti-torture prohibitions. Nor do they scruple to follow them voluntarily.
An extraordinary article – extraordinary, because it is published in The New York Times – details the Islamic Rules of War under which jihadis fight (the Geneva Conventions, they ain’t):
Islamic militants who embrace violence may account for a minuscule fraction of Muslims in the world, but they lay claim to the breadth of Islamic teachings in their efforts to justify their actions. "No jihadi will do any action until he is certain this action is morally acceptable," says Dr. Mohammad al-Massari, a Saudi dissident who runs a leading jihad Internet forum, Tajdeed.net, in London, where he now lives.
Here are six of the more striking jihadi tenets, as militant Islamists describe them:
Rule No. 1: You can kill bystanders without feeling a lot of guilt.
Rule No. 2: You can kill children, too, without needing to feel distress.
Rule No. 3: Sometimes, you can single out civilians for killing; bankers are an example.
Rule No. 4: You cannot kill in the country where you reside unless you were born there.
Rule No. 5: You can lie or hide your religion if you do this for jihad.
Rule No. 6. You may need to ask your parents for their consent.
[Editorial Notes: The Stiletto merely enumerated the rules here. The Times article provides detail and context. Also, keep in mind that these are the more "striking" rules; others the authors left out of their article are likely to be equally horrifying to civilized people. Finally, as none of the 9/11 hijackers were born in the U.S., jihadis clearly lack the "honor" to follow their own depraved rules of warfare.]
So we now find ourselves in the ludicrous position of refraining from "enhanced interrogation techniques" to gather intelligence that would prevent our soldiers from being ambushed and captured. Being holier than our Islamofascist enemies on the issue of aggressive questioning has increased the likelihood of our soldiers being tortured, killed and having their corpses desecrated.
The next time McCain launches into his well-rehearsed campaign patter on this subject, The Stiletto hopes he can connect this final dot for her.
As one of the Founding Fathers said: "I must prepare for (wage?) war that my descendants may have peace." Do we care about our children enough to support a war that will, at least in the short term, lead to peace?
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