How Should Prisoners of War be Treated?

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Recommended: Opinions on prisoners of war

How Should Prisoners of War be Treated?

In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, entitled "George W. to George W.," Thomas Friedman writes about the treatment of prisoners in United States custody being held in Iraq and Afghanistan. Friedman writes in his "George W." piece that “We killed 26 of our prisoners of war. In 18 cases, people have been recommended for prosecution or action by their supervising agencies, and eight other cases are still under investigation.”

Friedman goes on to write that the United States has been very lax when it comes to punishing those United States officials and officers in charge during the time that prisoners of war have been tortured and killed. Friedman calls for President Bush and the United States government to “Just find out who were the cabinet, C.I.A. and military officers on whose watch these 26 homicides occurred and fire them. That will do more to improve America's image in the Arab-Muslim world than any ad campaign, which will be useless if this sort of prisoner abuse is shrugged off.”

Friedman counter poses the present-day United States’s treatment of prisoners of war against the more compassionate way that Washington and his soldiers dealt with British and Hessian prisoners of war. Washington believed that every combatant had the right to surrender peacefully. Because of Washington’s treatment of prisoners of war, Friedman contends that “George Washington and the American soldiers and civilians fighting alongside him in the New Jersey campaign not only reversed the momentum of a bitter war, but they did so by choosing "a policy of humanity that aligned the conduct of the war with the values of the Revolution.”

Friedman raises many key issues that Americans need to deal wi...

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...unter, Edward. Brainwashing: The Story of Men Who Defied It. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Cudahy, 1956.

Kelley, Matt. “U.S. Urgently Searching for POWs in Iraq” Associated Press. 11 April 2003. 17 Apr. 2005 <http://www.drumbeat.mlaterz.net/>

McLaurin, Ron, ed. Military Propaganda: Psychological Warfare and Operations. New York: Praeger, 1982.

Myers, David G. Social Psychology. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2005.

Pease, Stephen E. Psywar: Psychological Warfare in Korea, 1950-1953.

Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1992.

Swieboka, Teresa. “Memorial and Museum: Auschwitz-Birkenau.” Online Posting. 21 Oct 1999. Panstwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau. 19 April 2005. http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/html/eng/s_techniczna/indes.html>.

Weintraub, Stanley. War in the Wards: Korean’s Unknown Battle in a Prisoner-of-War Hospital Camp. San Rafael, CA: Presidio Press, 1976

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