For most of our nations history there has been a concerted in not always successful effort made on the part of our Government as an extension of our society to fight wars as humanely as possible. There have been monumental failures of course so don’t bother citing them to me again.

            The point is that for the most part the US has had a reputation for adhering to the tenets of the Geneva Conventions, not allowing torture, and the extensive use of rewards rather than coercion to elicit information from P.O.W.s. This campaign was so successful overall that in the first Gulf War there were mass quantities of surrenders from opposing forces simply because they knew from reputation that we would likely treat them better as prisoners than they were being treated as soldiers.

            If you asked any soldier in the world the question, “If you became a P.O.W. which country would be the best to be held by?”, the vast majority of responses would be the USA. Contrast this with the behavior demonstrated towards P.O.W.s over the years by countless other nations and you had the foundation for a real effective combat multiplier. Surrender is 20 times more effective than killing or wounding. Instead of making mortal enemies of the fallen combatants family and friends you immediately made a friend out of the soldier and upon repatriation he was very likely to spread the word and convert others.

            These moronic, barbaric, degenerate jailers have just shot that straight to hell.

            That’s right, with the ease and efficiency only possible to those who can not see any consequences for their own actions these soldiers managed to undo the arduous work of over 200 years. They have ensured that there will be much more doubt in an opposing soldiers mind as to whether he will be treated well if he lays down his arms or whether it is worth it to hang on another day as a combatant. Let me be clear, these soldiers are committing fratricide by proxy. From now on every time an enemy soldier fires his weapon instead of surrendering as a result of their action and kills a US soldier some of that blood is on these jailers hands. Their punishment must be swift, harsh, and public.

            There are no extenuating circumstances possible in this scenario… none. Once an enemy solder is removed from battle and ceases to be a combatant, a soldier loses all rights to judgment or punishment for that prisoner. From that moment on he is to be protected not punished. If the prisoner has killed hundreds of our troops and then surrendered…. No jailer punishment…. If he raped 20 soldiers before being captured…. No punishment from soldiers….. Again to be clear, we as soldiers are organs of the Executive Branch, not the Judicial. We have no powers of judgment off the battlefield. If a prisoner has committed crimes that are known then he will be punished by wartime judiciary powers et up for that purpose. He will not be adjudicated by PVT Snuffy.

            These soldiers must receive the full force of punishment for this offense. We can not become the barbarians we fight to keep from our gates. If this behavior continues then the Fifth Column has already won and the War is lost.