MY GENEALOGY PAGE

 The recent prisoner of war scandals and new revelations  
about 26 prisoners under US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan  
who have died, in what investigators have concluded were  
acts nothing short of criminal homicide, brings to mind a  
book by David Hackett Fischer. Kishcher's book illustrates  
how George Washington rescued the American Revolution by  
defeating Hessian mercenaries in early battles in New  
Jersey. But what is particularly relevant for today is how  
Washington dealt with prisoners of war and in doing so set  
new standards for the more humane treatment of war  
prisoners.  

"What Fischer has to say is: "According to the laws of  
European was? Quarter was the privilege of being allowed to  
surrender and to become a prisoner. By custom and tradition,  
soldiers in Europe believed that they had the right to  
extend quarter or deny it. In these laws of war no captive  
had the inalienable right to be taken prison, or even to  
life itself... With some exceptions, American leaders  
believed that quarter should be extended to all combatants  
as a matter of right…Americans were outraged when quarter  
was denied to their soldiers." In a reaction to the British  
troops who murdered seven soldiers who had surrendered only  
to get their skulls bashed in Fischer concludes: "The  
Americans recovered the mutilated corpses and were shocked."  

But Washington did not respond with blind retaliation or  
revenge, it only strengthened his resolve, wrote Fischer:  
"Washington ordered that Hessian captives would be treated  
as human beings with the same rights for humanity for which  
Americans were striving. The Hessians were amazed to be  
treated with decency and even kindness. At first they could  
not understand it." So here you have it. In our tradition  
we are the first people to bring this kind of humane  
treatment to prisoners of war only to see ourselves descend  
into the kind of barbaric treatment that our founder fathers  
fought against. This is not good.  

I know war is hell and standards change but when you have  
the Attorney General of the United States say that the  
Geneva Convention's rules on treatment of prisoners is a  
quaint notion; I ask Mr. Attorney general to read a little  
bit about his history. It is against any rules of conduct  
to torture people to the point that they die in your  
captivity. We call that murder. In the United States our  
humane treatment in war has a tradition, which was a part  
of the founding father's beliefs in a more just society. We  
have fallen short, to be sure, many times but this is a  
tradition we should be proud of and these recent deaths we  
should be ashamed of as a nation.  

Source: David Hackett, Washington's Crossing. 

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