Congress is struggling this week to define limits the CIA may use for interrogation of terrorists and various assorted enemy combatants. The Geneva Convention Article 3 is the focal point of the debate.
Humane treatment of those whose religious beliefs dictate the killing of all Americans and Jews, according to Article 3, must not go beyond the point of offending their dignity.
Defending this point are such guardians of the American conscience as Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; John Warner, R-Va., and former prisoner of war himself, John McCain, R-Ariz.
If the CIA is too harsh with the terrorists, we are told by Sen. Lindsey Graham that we are no better than they are.
What is baffling to most Americans about Article 3 is the obvious fact that jailing these barbarians is a great offense to human dignity to begin with.
The fact that President George W. Bush needs strong interrogation methods to save American lives is pushed aside.
No one to my knowledge has suggested any form of interrogation that involves pain or bodily harm that could be considered torture.
Looking back through the years to World War I and World War II, a change occurred in treatment of prisoners of war after World War I.
World War II changed the manner in which prisoners of war were treated, especially in the Asian areas of combat.
Japan led the way in brutality toward prisoners of war. At the same time, in the European theatre, prison camps followed the Geneva Convention.
The Korean War (1950-53) held little improvement in prisoner of war treatment over the Japanese treatment of captives in World War II. In November 1950, at a place called ÒDeath Valley,Ó 500 to 700 of the 1,000 American internees, mostly from the 2nd Infantry Division, died.
Torture came to the fore during the Vietnam War where mistreatment became the order of the day at the Hanoi ÒHiltonÓ prison. Sen. McCain was one of those prisoners who was brutally tortured and kept in prison for the duration of the war.
A total of 660 military POWs and 141 civilian POWs were returned at the end of the Vietnam War while 2,583 in the POW-MIA status remain unaccounted for.
The USS Pueblo was a separate issue. The unarmed ship was captured in international waters by units of the North Korean Navy on Jan. 23, 1968. Beatings of all the 82 members of the crew began immediately and were to last the entire 11 months of captivity.
The world of warfare has changed since the signing of the Geneva Convention in 1949.
The United States is confronting a different enemy today. It faces nations that kill their own people. AmericaÕs enemies are stateless people in many cases, operating in groups or as individual terrorists. They wear no uniforms.
The nationÕs enemies are not the enemies of the past.
America abhors their savage and barbaric methods and tactics, but that by itself is not enough. America must rethink its strategy, lest increasing numbers of its own citizens die.
Its approach to warfare has to rise above GenevaÕs touch-feely methods.
E. Ralph Hostetter of North East is a former Cecil Whig publisher.
© 2006 Cecil Whig