I think the bombers should actually be treated thugs rather than like war combatants, though their punishment and interrogation be nonetheless severe. I’m not sure if I would ever want to give them the status of being ideological warriors, as that is what they were looking for (so much that they wanted to kill people to gain that status).
Xanthippa says:
This issue is much more complicated than it would seem on the surface.
If we treat this as part of international Islamist was on ‘The West’/’infidels’ and apply UN rules of war, these people would loose all the civil liberties protecions afforded them under the US/Canadian constitutions. Thus, since they were not in uniform and obeyed no clear military chain of command, the Boston bombers could, under UN law, be summarily executed and/or held without charge or trial indefinitely.
Clearly, this is highly problematic, on several fronts.
They were US citizens committing a crime un the US – so US constitutional guarantees and criminal laws shoule apply…
Unless they themselves considered themselves to be combattants in an international/suprantational war, in which case their self-perception would strip them of these protections and toss them into the UN arena…
Obviously, we do not have properly defined legal procedures to be followed in these instances. And, equally obviously, there are severe problems with the UN laws…
Xanthippa's Chamberpot 
April 23, 2013 at 12:38
I think the bombers should actually be treated thugs rather than like war combatants, though their punishment and interrogation be nonetheless severe. I’m not sure if I would ever want to give them the status of being ideological warriors, as that is what they were looking for (so much that they wanted to kill people to gain that status).
Xanthippa says:
This issue is much more complicated than it would seem on the surface.
If we treat this as part of international Islamist was on ‘The West’/’infidels’ and apply UN rules of war, these people would loose all the civil liberties protecions afforded them under the US/Canadian constitutions. Thus, since they were not in uniform and obeyed no clear military chain of command, the Boston bombers could, under UN law, be summarily executed and/or held without charge or trial indefinitely.
Clearly, this is highly problematic, on several fronts.
They were US citizens committing a crime un the US – so US constitutional guarantees and criminal laws shoule apply…
Unless they themselves considered themselves to be combattants in an international/suprantational war, in which case their self-perception would strip them of these protections and toss them into the UN arena…
Obviously, we do not have properly defined legal procedures to be followed in these instances. And, equally obviously, there are severe problems with the UN laws…