The Taliban Have to be Sent Home Under International Law

I learned this in the Economist this week.

There are two basic international rules of war under which we are holding the bad guys in Guantanamo.

The 1st is Al Qaeda guys that we hold on the basis of the War on Terror and our being attacked multiple times.  We can continue to hold them as long as Al Qaeda exists and threatens to do us harm.

The 2nd is the Taliban guys (like the guys we used in the Bergdahl prisoner exchange) that we hold on the basis of the War in Afghanistan.  Once we no longer have troops in Afghanistan, we cannot hold any prisoners of war legally (from the War in Afghanistan) and we would have to send them home or be in violation of any number of moral codes.

So when the GOP politicians pretend that we could have held these exchanged prisoners for a long time to come, they are either ignorant or deliberately ignoring the reality that these guys were going to go home sometime in the next year or two anyway.

And I maintain that all the prisoners in Guantanamo should have been prosecuted for crimes and sentenced to jail in the U.S.  Then the gang members in jail would have dispatched them to meet the heavenly virgins that are awaiting them and we would have be having to argue about what to do with the people held in Guantanamo.