Torture is against the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Conventions extensively defined the basic rights of wartime prisoners (civilians and
military personnel); established protections for the wounded and sick; and established protections for the civilians in and around a war-zone. The treaties of 1949 were ratified, in whole or with
reservations,
by 196 countries.
[1] Moreover, the Geneva Convention also defines the rights and protections afforded to
non-combatants.
Controversy has arisen over the US designation of irregular opponents as "unlawful
enemy combatants" (see also
unlawful combatant) especially in the
SCOTUS judgments over the
Guantanamo Bay brig facility
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld,
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and
Rasul v. Bush,
[49] and later
Boumediene v. Bush. President
George W. Bush, aided by Attorneys-General
John Ashcroft and
Alberto Gonzales and General
Keith B. Alexander, claimed the power, as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, to determine that any person, including an American citizen, who is suspected of being a member, agent, or associate of
Al Qaeda, the
Taliban, or possibly any other terrorist organization, is an "enemy combatant" who can be detained in U.S. military custody until hostilities end, pursuant to the international law of war.
If we inhumanely treat prisoners like ISIS does we lose. We've lost our moral compass and are no better than they are. Nor are we any better than the Nazi's tried and convicted as war criminals after WW2.
