Our wonderful administration is whining about Iraq being in violation of the Geneva Convention for parading American POWs in front of the cameras. While I trust our POWs are safe and Saddam won’t do anything stupid, this is exactly what I worried about when we began throwing people in cages in Cuba.
As a sailor, I heard a lot about the Geneva convention. My superiors always talked about it during our abandon-ship drills. I don’t think anyone actually believed the enemy would be so kind.
Nor did I actually expect our country to actually respect it. Bush and gang are punching miles-wide holes through it to justify the illegal detention at Guantanamo Bay.
If the U.S. can’t even give lip-service to this convention, how could I ever hope it would save my butt? If there’s one thing that would do America good (and that’s all I ever want for my country), it would be to stop being so damn hypocritcal about everything. There are not “American citizens” and “everybody else,” for instance. There are only human beings. Let’s play by the rules or not hide behind them.