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Showing posts with the label Geneva Conventions

Talking About Today's Military: When did the USA stop using non-combatant medics on the front line?

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When did the USA stop using non-combatant medics on the front line? While it  is  true that in most of the 20th Century conflicts the United State fought in medics were not armed or participated in actual fighting, the nature of the enemy  and  how military medical personnel are treated by the enemy have changed. In World War II, for instance, most of the belligerents were signatories of The Hague Convention, which laid out the rules governing the treatment of combatants and non-combatants during times of war. Even Nazi Germany adhered to those rules in  most  cases, with the notable exception of how the Third Reich treated Jews and Soviet prisoners of war. (The Soviet Union and Japan were not signatories, so their record on how they treated prisoners was not exactly laudable. One of the many rules of war that most of the warring nations observed was that medical personnel did not carry weapons and had to wear distinguishing brassards or helmet insignia that bore the Red C