Is America outta line with its treatment of Taliban prisoner

[Charles RB]

Is America outta line with its treatment of Taliban prisoners? Discuss<P>First off, this is a MATURE and POLITICAL discussion. So BRAINS are needed. NO some mindless anti-America or patriotic spam. I don't care if "yeah cozzz America suxx D00D!" or "No becoz America is good yer wrong GOD BLESS AMERICA"; first person to write something like that WILL have their testicles ripped out and be forced to eat them. :flaming:<P>Now, here's the <B>facts</B>:
Al-Que'ida and Taliban prisoners are on a US military island. They are being hooded, chained, placed in cramped outdoor cages and can be executed without proper evidence or trial. While the Geneva Convention condemns this treatment of prisoners of war, the US government is saying the prisoners are "unlawful combatants" and therefore don't have the rights POWs do. Some of the prisoners are foreign citizens, including some British ones. All this has been confirmed by the news media, allowed by the US military to film/photograph the prison camp.<P><B>Opinion.</B><P>I feel this is, frankly, buggered. We were at war with the ruling Afghan government, the Taliban, and the terrorists were supporting them (I'm assuming they ARE all terrorists; this may not be the case) officially. Therefore they DO count as POWs. The whole "unlawful combatant" thing is just a phrase some politician invented a few days ago.
And the conditions... Look, they suck. This is just a few steps away from what Middle Eastern countries, the former USSR and Israel have done to prisoners. While the prisoners here haven't been tortured, it's still a shocking thing for a self-proclaimed "beacon of hope and freedom" and "civilised" country to do. In fact, I doubt Bush actually has control on this; his speeches and these current decisions have been decided & carried out by people lower down the command chain. (Bush LITERALLY can't spell "potato"; let's face it, he's a figurehead for the ministers w/ the real power)
As far as I'm concerned, this is disgraceful behaviour from the US government and they've come up with some inane new prisoner label to try and excuse it.<P>Your thoughts, guys?