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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (17779)	2/1/2002 12:41:42 PM
From: John Carragher	Respond to of 281500

Published in USA Today January 25, 2002 Page 14A Cuba-based captives are not POWs When my husband, U.S. Marine Col. William R. ''Rich'' Higgins, was captured by radical Islamic terrorists in Lebanon in 1988, our country never called him a ''prisoner of war,'' but maintained he was a ''detainee'' (''Terrorism victim remembered,'' Letters, June 19, 2001). I'd like to believe that if those same officials were in the government today, things might have been different. Had my late husband been declared a POW, our country could have insisted on ''humane treatment and certain accommodations'' ('' 'POW' has legal rights; a 'detainee' might not,'' News, Tuesday). I always thought of my husband as a prisoner of war. After all, he met the ''traditional definition'' of a POW, according to the unnamed officials quoted in USA TODAY's article: He wore a uniform, had a ''recognized hierarchy'' and subscribed ''to the international norms of warfare'' -- although as a United Nations peacekeeper, he was unarmed. I know that even as he was dying of torture, abandoned by the Red Cross and the United Nations, he thought of himself as a POW. I'm also sure he thought his country did, too. The terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are not POWs. Col. Higgins was. Robin Higgins © Copyright 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. _________________________________________________ Colonel William R. "Rich" Higgins, a United States Marine serving with the United Nations in the Middle East, was captured February 1988, held for an indeterminate time, and murdered sometime before his remains were returned home almost four years later, in December 1991. His friends and family could never get the United States to declare him a Prisoner of War during that time. There was never any outrage on the part of the international community and no insistence on humane treatment or any other rules of the Geneva Convention. Do you believe that when a man or woman in the uniform of this country is taken by hostile forces because of who the servicemember represents, he or she should be treated by our country as a Prisoner of War? It is recognition of the bond this country has with those who would go into harm's way for our country. In the midst of the debate over what to call and how to treat the terrorist criminals being held in Cuba, please let us not forget our own servicemembers. Please consider asking the Defense Department and your elected representatives to declare Colonel William R. Higgins, posthumously, a Prisoner of War.

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (17779)	2/1/2002 3:30:57 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Speaking of Wasteful Spending....... The White House will pay $3.4 million "in taxpayer dollars" to Fox for "two Super Bowl ads that tell Americans that buying drugs funds terror" (New York Daily News). Using taxpayer money to provide an opportunity for the Bush team to continue the fear mongering and get a plug in for themselves as the defenders of the pure and chaste. What chutzpah. Why the special rake off for Rupert Murdock?? Payback for campaign contributions? What a waste of taxpayer money. Politics at its worst. -Ray

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (17779)	2/1/2002 4:26:15 PM
From: Webster Groves	Respond to of 281500

<<Btw, Congress voted an authorization for the use of force, the closest thing to a declaration of war one can have when we don't know who has actually attacked us.>> Actually, Congress hasn't declared war on anyone since 1941. And I predict that Congress never will ever declare war, as specified by the Constitution. The powers of the presidency today are far greater than they ever have been, except perhaps during the War Between the States. Regarding your statement above, may I resurrect old memories of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, passed after an alleged attack on a US ship by NVN. Could've had a real Congress-declared war on that one, but luckily we didn't and no harm was done to the new Executive powers. (Can't say the same regarding some of my buddies.) - wg