UnAmerican

Here's a way of dealing with terrorists that is worse than Bush's Guantanamo. Totally at variance with American values:

Men, or squads of men, who commit hostilities, whether by fighting, or inroads for destruction or plunder, or by raids of any kind, without commission, without being part and portion of the organized hostile army, and without sharing continuously in the war, but who do so with intermitting returns to their homes and avocations, or with the occasional assumption of the semblance of peaceful pursuits, divesting themselves of the character or appearance of soldiers - such men, or squads of men, are not public enemies, and, therefore, if captured, are not entitled to the privileges of prisoners of war, but shall be treated summarily as highway robbers or pirates.

But, oh, wait. Whose unAmerican policy is this? Oh. Hmmm. Oh. Never mind.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF ARMIES
OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE FIELD

Prepared by Francis Lieber,
promulgated as General Orders No. 100
by President Lincoln, 24 April 1863.

HT to A Jacksonian.

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