I was the first female Army JAG at my post.
No, I don’t think terrorism can be handled by the criminal courts.
This is the problem.
Terrorism IS war. I’m aware of the method of interrogation employed by the Soviets during that recent unpleasantness. Whether we put their spies up in a Hilton, or slowly amputated their fingers, a joint at a time, it wouldn’t have changed anything about the way they were treating captured US and allied spies.
Clandestine war is still WAR.
You brought up the fact you are female, and I suspect there’s a little bias in effect due to your gender.
This is the problem with the modern military - it isn’t the peace corps with guns. It’s supposed to be the means by which we maintain the integrity and extent of our borders, and protect our national interests abroad.
The goal of war is to drive the adversary to the point at which they no longer have the means or the will to continue to wage it.
If it takes gang-raping a captured US female pilot, I assure you they will do it. By they, I mean all military and intelligence services, except perhaps the Canadians and maybe the Norwegians.
Anybody that’s been tortured knows 1) it works, and 2) if it saves the lives of their comrades under arms it is the least expensive way to obtain truly actionable intelligence that there is and it will be done.
You know what the worst thing about it is? None of the enemies we are up against are stupid enough to actually put mothers and sisters in positions where they can be captured and tortured. And what is a little worse is that whether the captured female has intelligence or not, the likelihood of them being raped is 5 chances out of 6. Higher in Islamic countries.
Because of that, it is easier to kill them than risk them going back and blabbing about it after a prisoner exchange. The exception to that is Russia, who in general tried to preserve the ‘value’ of tradable female spies, since they used so many of their own.
That isn’t true with female combat soldiers. Better returned dead, or not at all, than alive to tell about the war crimes.
Females and homosexuals make great spies, and they should serve in those positions. They make horrible soldiers and put their entire force in jeopardy every time they go outside the wire.
I haven’t even talked about the havoc it causes families stateside.
I find it funny that with the American Revolution, suddenly war is conducted by a new set of rules. Prior to Pax Americana, the way to win was to eliminate the entire race. This is why there are no more Picts, Lombards, or Carthaginians. Slaughtered down to the last baby.
Nowadays, when you fight with the US, you can expect a check in the mail when it is over and we win. Even the Russians got one, and they invested those proceeds to use against us once again. The Romans were brutal, but they knew not to harbor a threat when you could end it instead.