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Oh well. Even if he's a bastard, I have a hard time imagining anyone could do a more horrific job at stripping civil liberties than Ashcroft.
I think we are going to be horribly surprised. The guy already said the Geneva Convention was "quaint"
This in the ears of the average nut-job who's come in from Jordan to fight sounds like "The Americans will rape your wives and sisters and torture you like a dog if they capture you. Fight them to the death."
Civilised rules of conduct during times of war prevent bad feelings running deep further down the line. The ordinary German soldiers of WW2 we can forgive as they treated their POW's well. The Nazis we cannot as they did horrific things to the Jews, Poles and many other groups. Many soliders still hate the Japanese because they mistreated prisoners.
You cannot just "disregard" pieces of this convention. His comments will have undoubtedly fuelled jihadists reasoning not to be taken alive, prolonging conflict and increasing casualties.
And that's even before he's started removing more constitutional rights...
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Please replace the handset, and try again.
