The Geneva Conventions and the War on Terror

According to John Yoo who at the time under the Bush Administration was working at the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice stated that “The Geneva Conventions didn’t even come up until the war in Afghanistan starts.” The Geneva Conventions was signed by the United States in 1949 and it states that “These international laws prohibit torture, outrages upon personal dignity, and humiliating and degrading treatment of detainees.” The Geneva Conventions are of upmost importance to Americans because of how frequently we’re involved in combat operations, and the risk of being a P.O.W. is very high. If an American were to be caught they would be protected under the conventions and should be treated in a humane fashion. According to John Yoo the Justice Department’s position, was that there was no need to apply the Geneva Conventions. The feeling was that al-Qaeda didn’t sign the Geneva Conventions, or follow the rules of warfare, so why should we apply humane treatment to them? In 2002 the Justice Department, and White House officials believed that the Geneva Conventions shouldn’t be applied, and this swayed President Bush to come to the conclusion that the Geneva Conventions would not apply in this situation.