News – A humanitarian watchdog group on Wednesday raised concerns over the U.S. military's handling of juvenile detainees in Iraq, saying "some children have been detained for more than a year without charge or trial."
With the damn country bombed back to the stone age possibly the kids are as well off in custody, I am under the assumption that they get regular meals between bouts of torture.
First off, for most areas in Iraq, being bombed to the stoneage would be an improvement. Before you start singing the praises of Saddam Hussein, you do realize that Baghdad doesn't have a sewer system. This wasn't caused by the US, Saddam never built one.
As to torture, things you saw in the Abugrab photos were nothing compared to Saddam's methods. Prisoners before their "confession" ofter were raped, both men and women. If a male prisoner wouldn't talk, generally his wife, mother, daughters or other female relative or relatives were raped in front of them until a confession happened. Electrical shocks to the privates, amputations of male parts was another fun one. Executions often included the entire family, clan or village.
I think that when they're arrested they're released is a far better alternative to Saddam's methods.
I guess it's better than having a lighstick shoved up your butt, or having to wear a dog collar, or being drowned.
Just trying to build tomorrow's terrorists today.
What a mess this president and his supporters have gotten us into.
Walden, Saddam would have raped, tortured and executed the convicts entire family. On that note from your statements, are you saying Iraq was better off with that type of leader? We could cut & run leaving the country to Iran. I suppose that would make you happy.
Yeah, to be honest with you I preferred the costs and benefits of the policy of containment. His country was cut in three by no fly zones. The weapons inspectors were running around. We probably wouldn't have lost the 4,000 troops, the tens of thousands wounded and borrowing $2,000,000,000 a week from our enemies for it. How much would gas be without the instability?
Yeah, I think the US was better off with Saddam in power. Crazy isn't it?
Of course who knows where Iraq may be in 10, 20 or 50 years, so the final chapter hasn't been written.
When Saddam was in power, the Iraqis where free to leave the country. Iraqis who disliked Saddam left Iraq. Since Bush's invasion, thousands of Iraqis civilians died. Bush's shock & awe strategy killed thousands. After that, a civil war broke out. There is a power vacuum that hasn't been filled yet.
The Iraqis won't allow us to decide who will lead them next. We should get out & let them decide what to do with their country.
Hamas teaches children from the time they can walk to hate. In Palestine 50% of 6 and up want to become suicide bombers. Their mothers are proud of this aim and encourage it. This is the type of people we are dealing with. Remember they sent two retarded girls into a pet market in Iraq with bombs tied around them and blew them up by remote control.
We should just ignore these kinds of things. Typical liberal. Everybody is peaceful. All children are innocent.
I'm not a liberal. I'm a realist. A businessman. I like to collect information, analyze the information, make projections, measure results and make adjustments.
When I consider all of the above it appears to me that Saddam Hussein was doing a fine job of keeping the suicide bombers in Iraq to a minimum prior to us getting sticking our noses into it.
Improper treatment of young potential terrorists is just plain STUPID! They SHOULD be housed in a McMansion, given lots of fatty snacks, and allowed to play (non-violent) video games all day. Indoctrinate them into OUR way of life. That way, when they grow up, they will want to JOIN us instead of DESTROY us. Sometimes I wonder which toilet the people we put in charge fished their brains out of.
A couple of years ago I saw a television news piece regarding two teenagers at Gitmo who were pick up in the initial Afghanistan invasion. They were being sent back home to Afghanistan but were reluctant to leave as they had made friends with some of the the marines stationed there. They had been having a great time the marines had taught them to surf and these kids didn't stay in the prison compound with the rest of the detainees. I think maybe this article is bullsheet.
wolfie,
The article isn't BS. But the fact that HRW's report is dispute by Multi-National Force-Iraq leads to several questions: Where does HWR get it's information, which contends that some of the detainees spend months in jail versus MNFI's contention that the detainees only spend a max of 6 months? How accurate is the MNFI's record keeping and do they take into account whatever the Iraqi government is holding onto?
It may be a matter of semantics.
Your assumption that whatever our government says is accurate is the blinders of your intellect. Abu Gharib happened because the chain of command didn't know or want to know.
I'm all for detaining enemy combatants, but shouldn't the Iraqi cops be in on this? (little juvenile deliquents).
mr204,
Last time I checked it was still their country. Isn't that what their elections were all about?
Precisely! The little buggers should be in school! Where are their parents?
I think the U.S. military would look more benevolent if they let the local cops (and Iraqi truant officers if there are any) handle this one.
mr204,
I don't believe that they have the same attitude or bureaucracy towards education that we do. But, our relationship with the Iraqi government is totally immersed in defense and not policing the population in the hostile environment for the most part. How these kids have been incarcerated is not in the article, so various assumptions abound; they're aiding insurgents, have been caught stealing or carrying weapons, ect.
I don't think our image of benevolence is something that can be turned around at this time since most Iraqis want us out with varying circumstances.
I suppose I'm being idealistic. They may have been engaged in insurgent activity(against the U.S., Iraqi security or opposing Muslim factions), or they're just pint-sized thugs. But they're still kids. Their belief system and view of the world has not been solidified yet.
I'm imagining Denzel Washington doing an Iraqi TV ad in Arabic for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Baghdad. "Stay in school. Come to the Boys & Girls Club. Stay outta trouble."
Local problems Local kids requires Local solutions. Let the Iraqi legal system take care of 'em.
Some child detainee are about to be freed:
First of all, we should all be ashamed with ourselves for allowing this horrible, illegal and immoral occupation and genocide to continue. Anyone who has not realized that the war on terror is a farce and that 9-11 was an inside job is living in some kind of dream world. Please google 9-11 for yourselves because you will not get this information from your corporately controlled boob tube.
Please, please, please show us conclusive, absolute proof that 9/11 was an inside job. I get very tired of people making statements that they either heard, read or were told about. The reputation of this country is as important as your reputation is to you. If you are ever tried in an American court, you will expect that the proof be beyond a reasonable doubt. This country deserves the same standards as you demand. Unless you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that 9/11 was an inside job, and I don't mean quoting from Counterpunch, Anti-War and the rest of those web based garbage publications, I suggest that you use some of your own brain cells and ponder if this country is as deviant as you would like to us believe it to be. All of the information that I have been priviliged to review says that it wasn't anything close to an inside job.
Please do not think for one second that I do not love this country, I do not take this accusation lightly nor do I have any more truth to 9-11 than any who have looked at the evidence. Obviously there is a vast amount of evidence that is withheld by the government, for what reason I am not sure, however after rationally looking at the evidence I can come to only one conclusion. Either the government wants to appear guilty of the mass murder that was 9-11 or they are guilty.
ROTFLMAO
Another conspiracy buff. The government did it.
Get with the real world. There are basic facts available to anyone. That data is absolutely clear that those planes brought them down.
The jet fuel started a huge fire and the other fuel for the fire that was part of the building made it so hot that the steel beams could actually melt. That is a fact that you can find on the internet about the temperature of burning buildings. Firemen use this data and help create it. At that point the building pancaked like many other buildings have that lost structural integrity.
" This country deserves the same standards as you demand. Unless you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that 9/11 was an inside job "
I hear you on that beyond a reasonable doubt thing.
Now don't you wish they'd applied that kind of evidentiary requirement before getting us bogged down in a near endless (so far) war of aggression?
I will never argue the point that getting into this war was pointless, completely wrong and just plain stupid. However, I can tell you from factual evidence that 9/11 was not an inside job, and anybody who deludes themselves into thinking that it was should consult the experts who unequivicably know that it wasn't. While Kennedy's assassination could be questionable as was Lincoln's, the very magnitude of 9/11 would preclude it from being an inside job if anybody understands how this country works. Plus the fact that reputable engineers, historians and other noteworthy individuals have sifted through the evidence and it's not a question as far as they are concerned. The evidence is overwhelmingly evident that it couldn't have been an inside job. There are and have always been conspiracy theorists who peddle their interpretation of the facts in order to make it fit their agenda. We have people on this thread who do the same thing constantly.
He killed a lot of Kurds in northern Iraq with WMD. Over 5000 shells of chemical and biological material have been found. Except for the first 500 that were given a blip in the news the media ignores it because it would strengthen Bush's veracity. Typical libs.
endo,
That would be especially true if the news also included that those WMD's we allowed him to have and contributed to.
The fact that no WMD's were found only goes to prove that the intel for prosecuting this war was only as faulty as the ones that presented it to the American people,and waved it in the air, in front of our faces, like Neville Chamberlain did with Hitler's promises in 38.
Not a member? Sign-up today!
nopatacious
harleyb761960
sterlingburt19681962
adrielh791966
m3chman
makemesmile
alamala
daviannewton651975
rhettdejesus1975
huckfinn8888
bizexpert
joedevil
spectra
Colaba
blinkers
dagorret
Niimki
avpd85
Beeboppin71
Beau7890
tehranchik
Helixbuilder
Oneworldviewer
Endoscopy
singer52
Ashinhurst
crown482
dissent
pics4funwp
Mdiar
Ciera Marie
mesodude
kwilco
alexander1380
marco1
dextrase
ind06
NewsLine
thinkingserious
DeadXXXManXXXTalkin
jordan11
BronxBomber
jovial
esakkura
fyuuuuut
Alexia
loverman
shawnmartinez1960
dwemm
saltyveruca
52)
Vote
"There are no juveniles in coalition force custody who have been detained for more than a year," he said. "All juveniles are required to be released within one year; the majority are released in fewer than six months."
"he said"
They also say "we don't torture."