treat one of our own? The answer is yes, depending on severity of injuries they have
sustained. As we noted at the beginning, we want the enemy to surrender. If enemy
soldiers feel we'll mistreat or kill them, then why would they ever surrender to us? We
want them to know we will take care of them upon surrendering; that is, that we will give
them food, water, shelter, safety, and medical attention. That way, we give them an
incentive to surrender. To do otherwise would be to encourage them to keep on
fighting, which would be stupid.
2-5.
THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS AND GULF WAR
a. Actions By the Iraqis. The action of Iraqi's military leaders recently
demonstrated the importance of complying with the law of war. Iraq spent much of the
war effort wasting its military resources targeting civilian areas Israel, indiscriminately
sending SCUD missiles against civilian neighborhoods in places like Tel Aviv. (Israel, of
course, wasn't even a party the conflict.) What good did it do? The result was simply to
outrage the world, which reacted with almost universal condemnation of Iraq. Indeed,
even many of the Arab nations were horrified by what Iraq did, and these nations fought
alongside the Coalition Forces to defeat Sadam Hussein.
b. Mistreatment of Prisoners. Iraq mistreated captured American pilots. The
result did not make other American or Coalition soldiers afraid of Iraq; rather, it gave
them a little "something extra" to fight for. Meanwhile, regardless of Iraq's actions, the
Coalition Forces treated enemy prisoners in accordance with the Conventions. The
result was that a trickle of surrendering Iraqi prisoners soon erupted into a torrent, as
hundreds and then thousands of their soldiers fled in disarray. In short, Iraq's violations
simply brought ruin upon its people.
c. Home Front Support. How important is home front support? The answer is
that it is incalculable. Think of the American soldiers living in the sand, dust, and heat
for many months. Every morning, at chow line, the soldiers could reach into a huge
barrel full of letters of support and hope and prayer, written to them by Americans half a
world away. School children across America sent pictures and playing cards and food
and games, and anything they could send, as Americans said a collective, "thanks." At
a lonely Christmas in the desert, the soldiers received presents from people they had
never seen, and whom they never would see. But it represented solidarity, a union of
the American people and those who went into harm's way to protect its interests. And
when war erupted, the American people held their breath, for the soldiers had come to
be their sons and their daughters. We were over in the proverbial strange and foreign
land, fighting for the interests of a small nation that had been overrun by a bully, fighting
to defend other such nations, and to take on the bully and the terrorists in their own
back yard. And when it ended, the Americans came home to parades and cheers and a
welcome reserved only for heroes. Imagine what would have happened if the
Americans, instead of being the proud, dedicated, professional soldiers that they were
and that they are, embarked upon a course of senseless carnage, blowing up school
children, murdering people, and simply destroying everything and anything in their path.
The reaction back home would have been entirely different.
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2-13