Ashcroft and Evans call it quits

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Elspode

I'm concerned that we'll end with someone who makes Ashcroft look like Jerry Garcia.

I've heard Gonzales' name tossed around a lot as a possible replacement. He's an old Bush friend, and was the guy who wrote the legal memos saying that torture was OK and that the Geneva Conventions didn't apply to the US as long as we called the "prisoners of war" "enemy combatants" instead. He's the policy guy behind Gitmo and Abu Ghraib abuses.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by glatt

"prisoners of war" "enemy combatants"

Someone help me out...what is the official difference between a "prisoner of war" and an "enemy combatant"?
I figured if a war is going on (we're warring against Iraq and the War on Terror is still going on seeing how , isn't it...or is it an offical War since terrorism isn't a country with a government and population?) and one side's fighters takes members of the other side's fighters prisoner, then they are 'prisoners of war'. I don't quite see how 'enemy combatant' differs from that. And if the one side's fighters take another side's fighters prisoner when there IS no war going on, then that's Kidnapping/Hostage Taking, depending on their intentions. Or is it all just a big complex workaround so that our leaders can do what they want...pardon...do what they feel is necessary to the people they capture and keep various treaties and conventions at bay? I'm apparently missing something here.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Cyber Wolf

Someone help me out...what is the official difference between a "prisoner of war" and an "enemy combatant"?

Uniforms, if you're caught fighting in the war zone without a uniform you're a spy and subject to unpleasantries......like death.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Uniforms, if you're caught fighting in the war zone without a uniform you're a spy and subject to unpleasantries......like death.

Whereas if you're caught fighting in a war zone with a uniform, you're a soldier and only subject to justifiable inconveniences...like death