Concept of Enemy Combatants
I have been watching the episode of Law & Order where a sister of an Abu Grahib prisoner killed a female reservist and wanted to be treated as an enemy combatant. It has really gotten me to think about the concept of enemy combatant.
Historically, enemy combatants were most often thought of as being from a set geographic location, like the Japanese, Germans and Italians in WWII or the North Koreans in the Korean War. The US announcement of a War on Terror created the concept of a war on nebulous groups who are bound by ideology or religious beliefs. As a result we have created the concept that fighting wars are not based upon geography because any person can adopt an ideology or religious belief. You could say that the slippery slope of how you define an enemy combatant to other types of groups that you would not have traditionally viewed as enemy combatants.
Take for example what is going on within the US. We have a situation where thousands of people are coming out on the streets protesting the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and so on and so on. One could make the case that the people view a segment of the Police as Enemy Combatants because they fail to protect and serve all segments of society while going around killing minorities without facing the consequences of their actions. The police probably view the protesting segments of US society as enemy combatants because they dare to stand up for the right that all lives matter, the police should not be denying people their Constitutional and Civil Rights, and the offending cops be prosecuted. The behavior of the bad cops may end up being the match that lights the spark that gets the masses to stand up to the 1%ers, MIC, and the Republicans/Tea Partiers whose goal is to become our Overlords while making the masses their serfs.
It may only be a matter of time before we start to acknowledge that the War on Terror is retitled and turned into the War on the Masses.
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