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Politics : Actual left/right wing discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: c.hinton who wrote (6713)	5/24/2007 10:27:51 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10087

Words have meanings. The meaning of the word enemy, and the meaning of the word combatant, do not combine to something thats limited to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Baathist fighting in Iraq to restore their regime are also current enemy combatants. And the term isn't limited to current situations. Nazi soldiers used to be enemy combatants. That doesn't mean that any surving German WWII veterans are now, or should be treated as such, but at the time they fit under the proper definition of the term. Anyone waging war against the US is an enemy combatant. Getting beyond just an English language definition (which was what I was talking about the whole time), you also have definitions as legal terms of art. If they have some other legal label for Baathists who attack American soldiers, or for any army we have fought against in the past, or will fight against in the future, then in terms of legal definitions the Baathists might not be "enemy combatants", but as a matter of normal language they clearly are. The law could define Al Qaeda operatives as "purple chickens", and set out ways to deal with such "purple chickens", but that doesn't mean they would be either purple or chickens in reality. A term that has been used before was "illegal combatant". It seems that whoever is creating that definition, wants to use "enemy combatant" to cover people that where called "illegal combatants" at least for a time.