In article ,
"HeyBub" wrote:
s
True but irrelevant. This country used to hold itself to a higher
standard than merely following the letter of the law, and strove to
treat prisoners of whatever status well. And the world knew it. At the
close of WWII, why do you think all those Nazis were trying like hell
to flee west? They knew how the Russians treated prisoners. A lot of
the German POWs held in midwest STAYED after the war.

Uh, it wasn't that we treated them so well, it was the Russians treated them
so badly.

No German POWs remained on U.S. soil at the cessation of hostilities. In
Britain, however, many were kept until 1948 to help with reconstruction.

You are correct in that there were many POW camps in the U.S. All together,
these camps housed over 400,000 POWs, many with U.S. citizenship.

Which is why I was wondering about how this "holding ourselves to a
higher standard" came about. Actually some of the worst POW-related
incidents in our recorded history, albeit before the GCs came about,
occurred during the Civil War. Andersonville for instance springs to
mind. Also, keeping in mind the "standards of warfare" at the time, our
Revolutionary soldiers were roundly criticized for fighting from behind
trees and other "unfair" tactics.



Not a single one EVER gained access to our civil courts. For any reason, at
any time.


It saddens me that our government now thinks the ends justify the
means.

I think you'll find that liberals tend to hold to that position while
conservatives are more interested in the "process," that is, "no good can
come from an immoral act."

The attitude of the two groups toward voting is an example. Almost all the
funny business comes from the Democratic ranks in the belief that getting
their candidate into office achieves a greater good than being a stickler
for the rules.

There's room for both techniques. For example, women are more concerned,
generally, with results than methods so I'd suggest that Hillary Clinton and
the leading female from both the Palestinians and the Israelis sit down and
get their business straight. They could probably finish the project in an
evening. Especially if there was knitting involved.

But no, the entire world has to focus on the "Peace PROCESS." And they've
been focused on the "process" for more than two decades.

Bah!

--
"Even I realized that money was to politicians what the ecalyptus tree is to koala bears: food, water, shelter and something to crap on."
---PJ O'Rourke