well, yes, since, the "rights of prisoners" you so honor carry with them parallel requirements on the part of the combatants. when al queda, et al, adhere to those requirements, i would be delighted to confer upon prisoners captured on the field of battle the rights enumerated by the geneva convention. btw, the battlefield is not confined to iraq and afghanistan, as that b**** amandijjhad's little stunt confirms.
I love the contradiction of some people who assert that nature has an intelligent designer (ie chooser of designs), but then claim that homosexuality is unnatural because, well, it's a choice.
The intro also was ignorant. How can Ahmadinejad be a dictator when he is just have figurehead with very little power?
Which I made clear in my initial post. I acknowledged that isn't law. Do you believe in the principles of the Declaration of Independence or not?
I asked if you believed in the principles of our founding fathers when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, and I guess this answers the question. You are opposed to the principles our founding fathers had in mind when they declared independence for our nation. Rather than believe that the rights are unalienable Rights, endowed by a creator or the laws of nature rather than by a magistrate or govt. you will only believe them if Al-Qaeda believes it. You have lost the right to question anybody else's patriotism on this board.
Yes, we should honor the Geneva Conventions, which we signed and even the Nazis made a stab at adhering to, when it came to POWs from countries they deemed Aryan enough, in their twisted minds, to qualify as human beings. Those who have been imprisoned in Gitmo, and other places, sometimes for years, haven't had access to the norms of civilized behavior of nation-states during times of war. Many of them have had no proof presented to them that they were, in fact, combatants. Many have had no access to counsel. They are largely unseen and unheard. You assume, in your own twisted way, that because they have been dumped in a prison camp, without rights under the Geneva Conventions, that they are all members of Al Qaeda and their like. You have no proof that some may not have been teenagers forced to carry supplies by the AQ or the Taliban, on pain of death. It happens all the time. It is happening right now, in Afghanistan. If we use the norms of civilized behavior during war in regard to POWs, not only do we show ourselves to be better than those who are terrorists, but we give those who are not terrorists, but people caught up in the horror of war, a chance to prove their innocence. Most importantly, we make the case for civilized treatment of our own POWs, something you can bet concerns many in the officer corps of the US military. If we become our enemy, we have lost. D&D. Impeach Mr. Bankrupting America.
That still doesn't translate into anyone on U.S. soil having the full rights of a u.s. citizen. In any case, the Iranian president was probably given more rights here than most gets in his homeland.
More from the goofus at the UN... Iran's leader attacks 1945 victors Sep 25 07:58 PM US/Eastern Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has blamed the UK and other victors of the Second World War for the world's problems today. In his speech to the United Nations' 62nd General Assembly, Mr Ahmadinejad said the victors of the war 60 years ago created a "road map for global domination not global justice". He said "some big powers" believed they should have more rights than others and have sacrificed human rights for their own advancement. As the president, who has openly called for the destruction of Israel and questioned the scale of the Holocaust, made his speech the seats assigned to the US and Israeli delegations were empty. Mr Ahmadinejad said he wanted to explain the "roots and causes" of the challenges facing the world. Mr Ahmadinejad, whose speech was translated into English from Farsi, said "scientific and careful" analysis showed relations arising out of the consequences of the Second World War were to blame. "The victors of the war drew the road map for global domination and formulated their policies not on the basis of justice, but for ensuring the interests of the victors over the vanquished nations," he said. He went on: "Some big powers still behave like the victors of the world war and regard other states and nations, even those that had nothing to do with the war, as the vanquished; and humiliate other nations and demand extortion from a condescending position similar to that of the master-servant relationship. "They believe that they should have more rights than others, and also are not accountable to any international organisations." Later in the 38-minute speech, Mr Ahmadinejad called on "these powers" to "turn from the path of arrogance and obedience to Satan to the path of faith in God". http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=paSarkozy_wed_00_iran_leader&show_article=1 And here I thought we fought to save the world from Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan domination. My bad. D&D. Impeach Mr. Bankrupting America.
Well, the distribution of political power after WWI and subsequent to WWII in the Middle East by France and Britain did set up some of the conflicts we are still seeing today... But I admit Mahmoud does not really know how to address his audience -- the first rule of public speaking.
I think Columbia University has jumped the shark in a big way. This was a lame attempt to court attention, and then they punted it big time with that lame intro. It was like MC Hammer trying to go gangsta. Gangsta Columbia! Yeah, not so much.
There's no question that European colonial and post-colonial policies created, or contributed to, much of the conflict we see today and have experienced in the past, and certainly the US has had its own share of responsibility, but Ahmadinejad and those who wield power behind him bear their own responsibility for a great deal of suffering inside and outside of Iran. (golly, what a long sentence!) The guy has made a joke of himself, however, and it is hard to take him seriously. Sadly, what Iranians are going through today is no joke. Neither is the threat from instability created by the Iranian government. The Bush Administration will be seen by history as having created enormous instability itself, particularly in the Middle East and South Asia. D&D. Impeach Mr. Bankrupting America.
I was appalled at the intro by Lee Bollinger. He could have easily said much the same thing in diplomatic terms. One would imagine the man has the intelligence to do so, had he wished. Instead, he made himself "part of the story," and did a disservice to Columbia, in my opinion. My wife is up to her ears in government, having to deal with politicos and their egos all the time, and she was shocked that Bollinger made an introduction like that. It simply isn't done. A member of a freshman debate team would have known that. You expect more from a university president, or should. D&D. Impeach Hip Hop. Please.
Do you think you're the 'audience' he's interested in? Far from it. This was a calculated PR move on his part and he's reaping the rewards from it in not only the Islamic world, but also a large swath of the developing world as well. He's won just by showing up and 'taking the heat'...
So, you ask this and Thomas Jefferson spanks you with an answer. Then, instead of admitting you screwed up and forgot what every American schoolkid knows, you get smarter and come up with this... No, I meant to reference the Declaration because that's what you asked about. Now, you change the subject and ask about the Constitution. OK, here's Jimmy Madison with a can of whoop ass... Pathetic. This is the current state of people who call themselves "Conservative" and Republican." They prefer Yoo over Madison, Bush over Jefferson, authoritarianism over democracy, oligarchy over The Republic. Still, they are too afraid to come out and say it... they rely on secret documents and innuendo, or in this case, basso refuses to say he doesn't believe in the principles of the Declaration and simply changes the subject with a witticism apparent only to him while the rest of us look on in horror at what this line of thought has wrought... the dismissal of the Declaration and the diminution of the Constitution, as if they had nothing to do with each other. There's a reason they're displayed together... And there's a reason the Declaration was displayed above the Constitution for 70 years and there's a reason the Magna Carta is displayed in the same room. Educate yourself basso.
For those who are interested in seeing the whole debate, here's a link on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDsDQCfZQ-I&mode=related&search=
Glenn Greenwald writes well... http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/09/24/ahmadinejad/index.html
Hi rimrocker, you forgot to highlight this. Let me do it for you! Silver -- who, among other things, has long been a leader in efforts to free convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard from prison -- did not even bother to disguise the threats he was making:
nice, not only do you confuse the issue, you do so so profoundly i have no idea of whatever point you may be trying to make. one can only suppose your intellect is so constipated by your hatred of republicans that you've lost all ability for rational, reasoned thought or discourse.
