The terrorist win by changing what America is. To dull our shining beacon to the world. A moral victory is the only way the terrosit can win. Do you really believe they can overthrow the United States and our allies???
They don't want to overthrow, they want to destroy. They want to place a nuclear bomb right in our asses and blow it up. They don't want a moral victory, they want the destruction of anybody that doesn't agree with their perverse view of Islam.
And nothing that America has done to combat terrorism has "changed us". Again, American history if filled with questionably moral acts in the name of protecting life, liberty and the American way.
You can't say how many Taliban recruits joined because they discovered America imprisons innocent Muslims without trail and even stoops to torturing. Convincing the Muslim world that America has concrete moral authority over the Taliban is essential to our wars in the mid-east.
And neither can you. The point is that people that join the Taliban are already predisposed to Islamic Extremism. If America didn't torture, they would join because of bombings. If America didn't have Gitmo, they would join because of Saudi Arabia, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Paris Hilton or Spongebob.
Or the Taliban would make **** up. Or Al Queda would make **** up.
You don't fight a war with the intent of looking good on Arab TV.
Also, Gitmo is the most overblown issue of them all. The Gitmo Prison is a spa compared to many Middle Eastern prisons. While you cannot justify American institutions based on Middle Eastern ones, the idea that rational Muslims would be offended by a prison more humane than their own is, again, absurd.
Some farmer who was forced to fight by Taliban press gang doesn't have a choice as whether they can wear a uniform or not, do they?
I care less about that Arab farmer than I do the Iowan farmer the Taliban wants to kill.
But that doesn't answer my question, what is the process, how fair is it, how successful is it, how much does it comply to the Geneva convention rules on determining whether one is non lawful combatant or not, etc, etc.
It's cool.
Of course not, but that process is far more open then a military tribunal system, thus its easier to determine the process is fair or not.
But the burden shouldn't be "what is fair", it should be "what is safer" or "what is more intelligent". Charging terrorists in American courts and having them go through domestic courts is pure stupidity. It would lead to soldiers having to collect evidence on the battlefield, soldiers having to testify in court and, as a result, soldiers deciding to leave bodies, not prisoners.
You want to increase the number of deaths on the battlefield? Start treating terrorists like domestic criminals.
The point is a person has a fighting chance to prove their innocence rather than just throwing every suspect in jail. In such a case 100% of innocent suspects get thrown in jail rather than the current increment.
Except everyone we bring in doesn't sit in prison for ever. Again, there is a system in place - the military tribunal.
There's a world's difference between presuming innocence and presuming guilt. Getting a trail means you at least have a chance to prove your innocence. How can that be something anyone takes lightly?
Because this is a war, not an issue of domestic violence.