A. Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:

1. Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.

2. Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfil the following conditions:

(a) That of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates;

(b) That of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance;

(c) That of carrying arms openly;

(d) That of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

3. Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power.

4. Persons who accompany the armed forces without actually being members thereof, such as civilian members of military aircraft crews, war correspondents, supply contractors, members of labour units or of services responsible for the welfare of the armed forces, provided that they have received authorization from the armed forces which they accompany, who shall provide them for that purpose with an identity card similar to the annexed model.

5. Members of crews, including masters, pilots and apprentices, of the merchant marine and the crews of civil aircraft of the Parties to the conflict, who do not benefit by more favourable treatment under any other provisions of international law.

6. Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war.

“I support the Geneva Convention, and believe the Islamic prisoners (or any prisoners for that matter) should be accorded its protection.”

If you’re referring to the clients of Club Gitmo, according to the the Geneva Conventions, especially the 3rd Convention, Article 4, Section A, all or most of them are not entitled to convention protections, and could have been shot upon capture.

By saying that any prisoners should be accorded convention protections, you are contradicting the conventions that you claim to support.

Therefore, by criticizing the United States for not according Geneva Conventions protections to people who are not entitled to such, you, my dear, are anti-American.

I wrote an entry about this in another blog (moderates, and why we are rarely talked about, when we are really the majority). I have been planning to clean up that post, and publish it over here. Your post will probably make me do it sooner rather than later.

Perhaps the best answer is acknowledging that the left-right political spectrum is just about worthless. I prefer a differentiation between statist and anti-statist (i.e. maximizing individual freedom and limiting the role of government) which would make one extreme anarchy and the other extreme something akin to the Soviet planned economy and political repression.

I think maybe that should be reversed. Your positions taken together seem a tiny bit more to the left with a even slighter rightward tilt.