Locomotive Mule

M.P.’s Received Orders to Strip Iraqi Detainees

“Foreign fighters could fall into the category of unlawful combatants,” Colonel Goetze said. He said he expected that only a small percentage of the prisoners in Iraq would be designated “unlawful combatants,” but he said, “These are the individuals who raised up, took arms, not carrying them in an open manner, not wearing uniforms; in other words, engaging in tactics and techniques that were not in accordance with the law of armed combat.”

an unlawful combatant is a fighter who does not play by the accepted rules of war, and therefore does not qualify for the Convention’s protections

Let me see here, AK-47s against SAWs. Toyota pickups against M1 Abrahms battle tanks. Several thousand insurgents against the might of the US Military.

How can it be expected that such an underdog force would conform to the “rules of war”. I seem to remember a rag-tag force under the command of one George Washington taking on the world power that was Great Britain - and winning. Not through superior fire power or remarkable tactics or even overwhelming manpower. No the insurgents that were the colonists used tactics which were far outside the “rules of war” and the British couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t adapt.