POWs must wait.

A recent news story told us that 3 prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay POW prison have hanged themselves. Some people have been criticizing the US for holding the prisoners of war. read story Let's look at how international convention says to treat POWs.

Acceding to the Geneva Convention, POWs can be held until hostilities are over. In W.W.II, POWs captured in 1939 were held until 1945 when the war ended. POWs are not criminals who serve a definite time in prison. They are soldiers who are part of the enemy army and who were captured while actively engaging in war against the United States Army. It may be presumed that they would return to their previous activity of making war on the US and the Afghanistan government if they were released.

The question of what to do with POWs has been a thorn for a long while. In many times and places they were summarily executed by the victors. At the time of the American Revolution in 1776 it was common to exchange prisoners or collect a fee from the other army and then let them go home. Prisoners swore an oath not to engage in further hostilities. Many of the released prisoners went right back to the army where they had been before being captured. Over time armies regretted releasing prisoners because they would have to defeat or kill them again at risk of their own troops.

During the US Civil war prisoners were sent to large POW camps where they were treated very badly. They had bad food and horrible sanitary conditions. They were often beaten or shot with little or no reason. Many died of disease and injuries. After WW I, western countries adopted the Geneva Convention on the treatment of POWs. It requires countries to provide adequate food, water and shelter. Is allows mail from home and inspection by organizations such as the International Red Cross to assure that minimum standards are being met. The Geneva Convention specifies that it applies only to those men who were captured while wearing uniforms of the enemy army and identified as part of the enemy army. It excluded spies and irregular commandos or resistance movements not part of a uniformed army. In WW II, Japan did not accept the Geneva convention and used prisoners as slave labor. Half or more of them died in captivity. In Viet Nam prisoners in the "Hanoi Hilton" POW prison were frequently tortured out of cruelty and hatred.

The prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were captured in Afghanistan fighting against the democratic government and American troops supporting it. They are being treated as well as POWs can expect. If they were released they would most probably return to the war against the Afghan government. It is not fun being in a POW prison until the war ends, but it's a whole lot better than other POWs have received over a lot of history in a lot of other places. They were not summarily executed upon capture. They were not used as slave labor or tortured. They do not die in large number of dysentery, disease, and abuse.

The US would like to close the POW camp and send the men home. But they can't be released until the war is over. Just this week there were several more battles between Taliban groups and Afghanistan forces. As long as the Taliban continues their war against the government and are not eliminated or decide to discontinue, the POWs are dangerous to US troops if they were returned home. How long they have to say is up to the Taliban. When the war is over they can go home.