War Crimes: A Taste of Inhumanity -- Cannibalism on the Battlefield

Out of the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor at The Hague in Amsterdam, this bloody gem:

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Grim tales of cannibalism highlighting the brutality of West Africa's civil wars emerged in testimony Thursday at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

Joseph "Zigzag" Marzah [...snip...] said African peacekeepers and even United Nations personnel were killed and eaten on the battlefield by Taylor's militiamen.

[...snip...]

Prodded under cross-examination by defense lawyer Courtenay Griffith, Marzah gave a sometimes-graphic description of cannibalism that altered between the ritual taking of vengeance and the practical need for food.

[...snip...]

"Did Charles Taylor order you to eat people?" Griffith asked.

"Yes, to set an example for the people to be afraid," Marzah replied.

[...snip...]

Enemies, he was told, "are no longer human beings."
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Join the United Nations, see the world, get eaten on the battlefield.

The dehumanization of enemies results in atrocity -- every time. That, perchance, should serve as additional consideration when other such redefinitions of words and terms are tossed about to justify inhuman and inhumane behaviors.

...a few specific terms that pop to mind are "enemy combatants" -- a term used to justify denying Geneva Convention-defined rights to prisoners of war -- and "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- a term used to soften the perception of coercive forms of "interrogation" that have been, and still are, prosecutable as torture.

Like waterboarding, for example.¹

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Footnotes
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1. Just in case those folks who forget the 2002 Bybee memo are expecting to get off without any charges, here's a reminder:
   

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   A Department of Justice memo from August 2002 argues that the torture and even deliberate killing of prisoners could be justified as necessary to protect the US.

   The memo from the then Assistant Attorney General, Jay Bybee, says that only actions causing severe pain akin to organ failure would constitute torture.
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   Related ePluribus Media pieces by GreyHawk: Other tapes that the WH wants to destroy, if they haven't already and Darkness Falls on American Justice: Abu Ghraib Officer Claims Probe Was Incomplete.

   The 2002 Bybee memo was later declared "inoperative" -- but there are still, to our shame, discussions and practices ongoing that have yet to call a halt to (and accountability for) the inexplicable attempt to justify inhumane treatment and torture.

   Further external reading: American Psychological Association Writes the Administration and Congress Criticizing Torture: Modest Progress?, Internal Justice probe examines sanction, review of waterboarding, Nothing is ever “cruel, inhuman, or degrading,” Congress told ages ago, Re: Is Michael Chertoff Lying? Might He Be A Supreme Court Nominee?.