re: "Bert Bank, R.I.P."

George Smiley at In From the Cold ("Musings on Life, Love, Politics, Military Affairs, the Media, the Intelligence Community and Just About Anything Else that Captures Our Interest") had some important news.

Important quote(s):

"We were saddened to learn of the recent passing of Major Bert Bank, U.S. Army (Retired). Bank, a World War II veteran, died last month in his hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama at the age of 94."

"(H)e survived the Bataan Death March and nearly three years of hellish captivity in a Japanese POW camp. Many of his comrades weren't as fortunate; thousands perished during the march to the camp, or during their years as "guests" of the Emperor."

"Bank joined the Army ROTC program at the University of Alabama. After graduation and commissioning, he spent a brief stint with a coastal artillery unit before transferring to the Air Corps, with an assignment as a B-17 bombardier at Clark Field in the Phillippines. He arrived in the fall of November 1941, just a few weeks before the Japanese attack.

Mr. Bank's flying career was cut short on December 8, 1941, when Japanese aircraft destroyed most of the B-17s at Clark and other airfields in the Philippines. The few surviving bombers--and trained crew members--were dispersed to other bases and eventually moved to Australia. Other personnel (including Bert Bank) were reassigned to the infantry for the defense of Bataan, the narrow peninsula where General Douglas MacArthur planned to fight a holding action against superior Japanese forces.

Working as a G-2 (intelligence officer), then-Lieutenant Bank was given the task of determining the enemy's location. "But that wasn't hard to figure out," Bank later told Hampton Sides, "The enemy was everywhere."

As the battle raged, the situation on Bataan went from bad to desperate. U.S. and Filipino troops were desperately short of food, ammunition and medical supplies--with no hope of resupply from the United States or Australia. Despite exhortations from Washington to "hang on," General Edward King, the senior commander on Bataan, surrendered his forces on April 9, 1942. It was the largest capitulation in U.S. military history.

Mr. Bank was among those Americans who passed into captivity with General King's surrender. A few days later, he became one of the thousands of sick, emaciated men who were force-marched to prison by their enemy."

"Mr. Bank's eyewitness account of the march and the camps affirms all of the atrocities associated with those events. Walking towards Camp O'Donnell--the former U.S. military post that Japan converted into a POW camp--Bank saw the worst of it. A Lieutenant Colonel he had been holding up slipped from his grasp and fell into the road; instantly, a Japanese solider ran him through with his bayonet. He was later forced at gunpoint to bury several Filipino prisoners who were severely wounded, but still alive.

Conditions in the camp were equally grim. Thousands of prisoners died from beatings, illness, malnutrition or a combination of those factors."

&

"Mr. Bank and his fellow POWs were finally liberated in early 1945 during a daring raid by the U.S. Army's 6th Ranger Battalion. The story of that mission--and the men who carried it out--form the other half of Ghost Soldiers, and it's a compelling read. The Rangers, led by their charismatic leader, Lt Col Henry Mucci, marched 30 miles into Japanese territory, freed more than 500 Allied POWs, and escorted them back to American lines."

Read the whole post here.

a question about Gitmo

A longtime friend and former roommate emailed me today and asked if we needed to close Gitmo.

He said:

"What's your opinion about Gitmo? I have a problem with giving those prisoners the same rights as someone who committed a crime on US
soil (although KSM could be tried for murder in NYC and VA). Why aren't they just deemed POW's? etc etc."

Off the top of my head I responded:

The Gitmo detainees fall into a very dark grey area. By their conduct (as combatants who did not conduct themselves in accordance with the laws of war, incl. Geneva Convention requirements such as recognizable uniforms) they do not qualify for POW status under the GC.

Traditionally, such persons are, when captured, shot as spies.

The U.S. military has, in recent decades (and since the invention of television journalism) gotten out the habit of shooting such folks upon capture.

They have no rights under the GC. By their conduct they have forfeited the GC protections afforded to civilians (i.e., non-combatants) but have not done so in a manner which would entitle them to the protections to which actual POWs are entitled. Sucks to be them.

Pres. Bush made the decision (and it's reasonable enough decision given the information warfare aspects of it) to treat Gitmo detainees POW level treatment, just as if they were entitled to POW status. Which they're not.

The only legal protections they have do not come from international law or treaty, but from our own laws and regulations.

We could convene military tribunals (authorized under the GC), try them as war criminals (which is what unlawful/illegal combatants are) and execute them. Or sentence them to death, and suspend the sentence at our convenience/whim. Such as to influence cooperation. Or execute 10 (or a hundred) of them whenever we learn that one of our own has been captured/tortured/murdered. Which is why you don't ever hear about how awful the detention of U.S. prisoners is at the Al Qaida equivalent of Gitmo. 'Cuz there ain't one.

Keeping them out of the U.S. was, as a goal, intended to avoid them coming under the criminal justice system, which decades of experience have shown to be inadequate to deal with terrorists of this sort (recall how many times the WTC were bombed), most Gitmo detainees not having been arrested and evidence processed with a civilian-style federal prosecution being in mind. Nor should we expect our combat troops to collect evidence CSI style.

I don't know what Pres. Obama intends to do with them; frankly it's unclear that he does either. We could certainly intern them at POW-style camps in the U.S. until the end of hostilities, but that makes them a target for their co-terrorists to ramp up operations to secure their release, target their guards (and their families) and other scary drawbacks. Putting them in civilian courtrooms only increases those hazards and does so exponentially.

Anyhow, those are just some rough thoughts on the matter. I carried a copy of the Army field manual on Laws of Land Warfare with me throughout my Iraq tour and consulted it frequently.