Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
Isn't an enemy combatant someone who is not in an organized army?
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Depends on which definition you use. The Administration sort of defined/redefined the term in that fashion sometime around 2002 -- when they began worrying about how to handle the many Afghani and other prisoners.
Historically, the term had just been used to refer to enemy soldiers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_combatant
S_A_M
P.S. I don't think that the U.S.' failure to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan can have any effect on whether or not Taliban fighters are covered by the Geneva Conventions. Otherwise any country can define/redefine the categories for themselves.
As a practical matter, they were solidiers in the Army of the entity that governed 90% of the territory for over a decade. I don't think that there is any dispute, however, that the Conventions don't really apply to Al Qaeda fighters. The question is more -- do we adhere to those standards anyway?
