11-14-2010, 02:26 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-14-2010, 02:34 PM by Occhidiangela.)
Shadow:
I will not waste my time discussing the "victim" who the prosecutor is allegedly standing in for as, it isn't germane to my disagreement with using age as a defense.
[quote='ShadowHM' pid='182644' dateline='1289527604']
But Omar was there because he was forced to be there by his family, his education and his culture. [/quote[
See my point above in re conscripts. See also LBJ's 100,000, who were well below 100 IQ draftees/recruits.
"Society is to blame" is a non defense.
[quote] Frankly, your insistence that a military prison is the appropriate place for a child soldier seems like continued penalization of the victim. [/quote]
Yet again you throw in the arbitrary issue of age/child. Captured while one is participating in a war, and in his case quite possibly as an unlawful combatant, gets one behind the wire.
That is one of many facets of war, good, bad, and ugly. The bomb doesn't care how old you are when it blows you to bits. If you participate in the war, you are subject to its down side. Protesting relative innocence, which appears to be your argument, takes us back to the relative innocence of conscripts, who don't really want to be there ... non starter.
I do not believe that he was dragged kicking and screaming into participation, though he may have been reluctant. I find the assertion/defense that he was forced to fight less than credible.
If this lad is in fact an unlawful combatant, then treatment as other unlawful combatants is appropriate. If that means "go to court" then that is where he is. If he was a lawful combatant, he has to my view no business going to trial over participation in a war and trying to blow somebody up. That's what one does in a war ...
Occhi
I will not waste my time discussing the "victim" who the prosecutor is allegedly standing in for as, it isn't germane to my disagreement with using age as a defense.
[quote='ShadowHM' pid='182644' dateline='1289527604']
But Omar was there because he was forced to be there by his family, his education and his culture. [/quote[
See my point above in re conscripts. See also LBJ's 100,000, who were well below 100 IQ draftees/recruits.
"Society is to blame" is a non defense.
[quote] Frankly, your insistence that a military prison is the appropriate place for a child soldier seems like continued penalization of the victim. [/quote]
Yet again you throw in the arbitrary issue of age/child. Captured while one is participating in a war, and in his case quite possibly as an unlawful combatant, gets one behind the wire.
That is one of many facets of war, good, bad, and ugly. The bomb doesn't care how old you are when it blows you to bits. If you participate in the war, you are subject to its down side. Protesting relative innocence, which appears to be your argument, takes us back to the relative innocence of conscripts, who don't really want to be there ... non starter.
I do not believe that he was dragged kicking and screaming into participation, though he may have been reluctant. I find the assertion/defense that he was forced to fight less than credible.
If this lad is in fact an unlawful combatant, then treatment as other unlawful combatants is appropriate. If that means "go to court" then that is where he is. If he was a lawful combatant, he has to my view no business going to trial over participation in a war and trying to blow somebody up. That's what one does in a war ...
Occhi
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete