Barack Obama gets Nobel's Peace Prize

That was as an answer to your original description of Guantanamo as equally shocking as the mass murders of Jews/Gypsies in WW II.

I would, without doing a Devil's Advocate, describe that position as lacking a sense of proportions.

>>But it isn't a war.

It is not a war in Afghanistan? Please inform the media.

>>So either they're civilians that have been arrested for crimes or they're prisoners of war.

But I just did a Devil's Advocate argument that the prisoners aren't treated worse than normal US' prisoners (which is horrible, but still much better than most any 3rd world prison system).

I thought the Red Cross had access to Guantanamo?

Edit: Grammar, sigh.

Edit: Historically, all countries I know of with terror problems (USA, Germany, Israel, Italy, Great Britain, etc) has played loose with human rights interpretations. I don't see a reason to judge the US harsher than others.

_ Myth: The prize is awarded to recognize efforts for peace, human rights and democracy only after they have proven successful. More often, the prize is awarded to encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments.

Posted by AP 6 hours ago. Clearly they knew this would create controversy.

I wasn't comparing them on an objective level (which I think was pretty obvious), merely stating that they are all things that will be with those respective countries for a long time.

> It is not a war in Afghanistan? Please inform the media.

From the wikipedia article on the 'war' in Afghanistan:

"The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) did not authorize the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom). There is some debate as to whether UNSC authorization was required, centered around the question of whether the invasion was an act of collective self-defense provided for under Article 51 of the UN Charter, or an act of aggression.[42]

The U.S. Administration did not declare war, and labeled Taliban troops and supporters terrorists rather than soldiers, denying them the protections of the Geneva Convention and due process of law. This position has been successfully challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court[43] and questioned even by military lawyers responsible for prosecuting affected prisoners"

And:

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/79295

So, to call it war is not clear cut. A war is something that is declared between nation states and the conflict in Afghanistan misses quite a few of the pre-requisites.

For the people in the region the difference is much less important, but in international law such things do matter.

> But I just did a Devil's Advocate argument that the prisoners aren't treated worse than normal US' prisoners (which is horrible, but still much better than most any 3rd world prison system).

So, do you waterboard people in your US prisons ? Do you torture them ? Desecrate their religious objects ? And far worse than that ?

> I thought the Red Cross had access to Guantanamo?

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/30/letter-obama-asking-ac...

http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/leaked-guant%C...

Apparently they were allowed to visit off-and-on during the Bush years, and then restricted in all kinds of ways, since Obama came to power this has changed but it is unclear whether they now have full access to the facility, I can't find any evidence of that.