Essay: The Geneva Convention

By Gerard Meister

On June 29, 2006 the United States Supreme Court ruled that all captured terrorists are to be accorded the full rights of the Geneva Convention. Shortly after that decision and likely emboldened by it, the terrorists posted on one of the many Islamic terrorist web sites the beheading of one of the two American soldiers captured in Iraq on June 20, 2006 (Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas and Pfc. Thomas Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon).

The decapitated service man was partially naked (possibly his genitals were mutilated), while the other poor soul had his eyes gouged out and an open wound on his chest (possibly his heart was torn out).

Clearly, terrorists are not bound by the Geneva Convention or any other single shred of humanity on the face of the earth, but are to be vested with the full panoply of rights inherent in that Convention. This decision was hailed in the mainstream media headed by the New York Times as " a major defeat for the Bush administration" and that sentiment was echoed by the ACLU the Human Rights Watch and the usual suspects in the Senate and in the house.

Well, it was a defeat all right but not only for George W. Bush, it was a defeat for the American people, every single one us!