Gee, where were all you caring people back during the Vietnam War when you clearly took the side of the enemy against the armed forces of America?
Some, like Secretary of State John Kerry and my fellow Returned Prisoner of War(RPW) Sen. John McCain were there fighting, in Mr. McCain’s case suffering. (In Mr. Kerry’s case, it was spending an imaginary Christmas in Cambodia.)
Yet, the statements this week accusing the United States of torture of combatants are obscene. They have no basis under international law and conventions.
Believe it or not, the United States Army ran (and may still conduct) a Law of Land Warfare course at the JAG School co-located with the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I, as an RPW myself, assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), was selected to attend this training. It was an eye-opener after being subjected to communist and American leftist propaganda during the Vietnam War.
I learned that terrorists and even non-uniformed guerrillas enjoyed no protection under international conventions. That provided to them by the United States was out of the goodness of our heart, not because the law required it.
Contrary to leftist myth, America never signed onto the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention at the United Nations simply because it was pushed by the Soviet Union at the time to legitimatize the Viet Cong and other guerrillas operating around the world in civilian attire as legitimate warriors.
At the same time American Special Forces, dressed as Viet Cong/NVA, were made very aware that they would enjoy no protection as a POW under international conventions if captured. This was not too much of a heroic stretch since the communists told you if captured, uniformed or not, they did not recognize the conventions and were not signatories.
As the leftists of the sixties screamed about American soldiers being “war criminals,” they and the press sanctified the Viet Cong as legitimate. They a decried the shooting of a Viet Cong terrorist in mufti by a Vietnamese police commander after that same communist had been murdering the secretaries upstairs at the police headquarters. (Thank you, Gen. Loan, for this insight.)
He enjoyed no protection under international statutes no matter how much the American left loved the Viet Cong.
In the Third Geneva Convention, there are four conditions under The Hague Conventions that allow guerrillas but never terrorists to be legitimized;
1. Must be commanded by a person responsible for his fighters (kind of rules out the mythical Viet Cong peasant rising up to murder on his own and some Muslim terrorist heathen sent by some imam or even Allah).
2. Must wear a distinctive emblem recognizable at a distance.
3. Must carry their arms openly.
4. Conduct their operations in accordance with the conventions and current law.
Should our President find some terrorists or guerrillas who meet the above criteria, I will personally demand they receive all protections under the statutes. If not, I do not want to hear about a SEAL or Marine bloodying the nose of some criminal, trying to hide among the sheepherders dressed just like them.
No need to read these slugs their “rights.” They have exactly none. Should we wish to give them a trial, military tribunals are totally legitimate, recognized under the conventions and Law of Land Warfare. But subjecting them to a civilian “show trial” is not.
Lastly, the very idea that the capturing entity must treat these criminals as enemy soldiers is absurd. It does nothing but diminish the status of true soldiers on both sides of any conflict. War and terrorism are not things reporters or politicians appear very well schooled in.
May I suggest our President and my own Sen. Dianne Feinstein pop on over to Charlottesville, VA, and enroll in the Law of Land Warfare course before opening their mouths about how to treat terrorists.
As a graduate, I highly recommend it.
It is the honorable American warrior and the American intelligence operative who do more to protect civilian lives in the unconventional warfare environment than any reporter or politician trying to get face- time because he is there and knows who is who.
(I have been walking my dog, who is going to be sprayed with my garden hose – if that still is allowed.)
Major Smith, RPW,Vietnam/Cambodia 1972-73 Vietnam Service; 1966(Those fourteen days TDY in December 1965 are on me) 1973, may be contacted at majorzippo@yahoo.com
