Quote Originally Posted by Schmedlap View Post
The question as to what type of trial to give to foreign combatants who are held prisoner begs the question of whether they should be given one at all. Is anyone aware of an explanation for why the detainees should be afforded a trial?

Most arguments seem to assume that a trial should occur and then embark upon a debate over what type of trial and how to conduct it. But I have never seen a justification for why we should hold a trial. I don't understand why non-US citizens who were taken prisoner on a battlefield, during armed conflict, and held prisoner outside of our borders, should have protections in the US Constitution bestowed upon them. Rather than addressing this question, we are subjected to accusations of torture, mistreatment, and denial of due process (again, without clarifying whether the detainees are owed any due process).

In the quote that begins this thread, there is a mention of undermining the rule of law. It seems that undermining the rule of law in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan was a good thing. Laws against shaving beards and flying kites don't seem all that virtuous to begin with. If the implication is that rule of law could be undermined in the US, then I don't see how that is possible, so long as the individuals are non-US citizens, not in the US, and captured on a battlefield during time of war.
To Schmedlap:

It is not the US Constitution that is the basis of providing the Taliban with a trial. It is the International Humanitarian Law & Law of Armed Conflict, which are both international customary laws that all countries follow. Even if the terrorist do not, civilized nations must. Because the Afghanistan government is a sovereign nation, the conflict they are fighting with the Taliban falls under Common Article 3 of Geneva. Terrorism, insurgency, rebels, they are nothing new and the laws have applied.

The international issue with how the US handled "terrorist" was because they created the "War on Terror" which is a war without a State and then categorized the terrorist or Taliban as a third category outside of the law's categories of combatants and noncombatants. Even if the US says that the Laws of Armed Conflict under Geneva do not apply, there are still the International Humanitarian Laws which state that all humans have rights to ask why they are being held by any government. There is more to it than that and the way it is written basically they are stating that humans have a right to a trial. I don't think they explicitly use the word "trial" but based on the rights, that is what it amounts to. My source:

Solis, Gary, D., The Law of Armed Conflict/International Humanitarian Law, 2010