Morality of War

Responding to the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration initiated a “War on Terror”. A campaign designed by the United States and supported by the other NATO allies to eliminate terrorist organizations threatening the U.S. and global security. Along this path, many civilians have been arrested and accused of “terrorism”. The suspects have been tortured to collect further information about their possible connection to any terrorist organization. This has created major scandals such as the “Abou Ghoraib”, challenging the legitimacy of the treatment of the suspects by the Bush administration. Meanwhile the war on terror has started a new phase after Obama’s victory in the 2008 presidential elections, the last terrorist attack in the Times Square by Faisal Shahzad, confirms the difficulty facing the U.S. government in maintaining its national security in the “War on Terror”.
One of the centers for holding the terrorist suspects, classified by the U.S. as the “enemy combatants”, in captive was Guantanamo Bay. The unique geographical position of this shore enabled the U.S. justice department to argue that the Guantanamo Bay is neither part of the Unites States territory nor Cuban territory. Hence it is outside the U.S. legal jurisdiction zone. Following the arrival of the first detainees to Guantanamo, U.S. Supreme Court recalled that the United States government is responsible for the minimal protection of the prisoners under the common article three of the Geneva Conventions.
Aside from the treatment of the detainees, the method used for arresting them has been a serious question. Only 7% of the terrorist suspects kept in captive in Guantanamo have been arrested by the NATO forces. The remaining 93% have been captured through the denunciations of the Iraqi, Pakistani or Afghan warlords who often received cash awards in response to their cooperation. On the surface, this helped the U.S. government to respond to the public lobbies by providing statistics of the number of imprisoned suspects. In depth the accuracy of these denunciations are concerning.
Dilawar, an Iraqi taxi driver, is an example of a wrong denunciation. Through the information provided by one of their informers, the U.S. army arrested accused and captured him for using rockets against the U.S. forces. Tutored under the hands of inexperienced U.S. soldiers, Dilawar died after few days. The case was not made public, until a New York Times journalist collected sufficient information on Dilawar’s torture and innocence. Afterward it was publicly announced that the denouncer of Dilawar was the person behind the rockets against the U.S. forces.
Supporting his policies, George W. Bush criticized the oppositions of his “War on Terror” campaign, arguing that the men in uniform are doing their job for the U.S. national security. However, arresting suspects through wrong denunciations or gathering inadequate information from the suspects using torture does not provide the right means for the U.S. national security. Nevertheless, along this path many civilians have died and when the cases wear revealed the inexperienced, traumatizes soldiers have been charged. The expectation from the Obama administration is to have a more effective, legal and moral approach to this case. Wars might be cruel, yet they still include morality as a fundamental element.
Image Source: The New York Times