The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials, a step that would mark a further, potentially permanent, shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.
The decision could culminate a lengthy debate within the Defense Department but will not become final until the Pentagon makes new guidelines public, a step that has been delayed. However, the State Department fiercely opposes the military's decision to exclude Geneva Convention protections and has been pushing for the Pentagon and White House to reconsider, the Defense Department officials acknowledged.
For more than a year, the Pentagon has been redrawing its policies on detainees, and intends to issue a new Army Field Manual on interrogation, which, along with accompanying directives, represents core instructions to U.S. soldiers worldwide.
The process has been beset by debate and controversy, and the decision to omit Geneva protections from a principal directive comes at a time of growing worldwide criticism of U.S. detention practices and the conduct of American forces in Iraq.
How this can continue to happen without somebody at every level standing up and telling this administration how wrong and harmful these new policies are is completely beyond me.
Who have we become that we accept this new definiton of what America should stand for in the world? Where are our ethical and moral leaders?
I sometimes feel that by the time the Bush administration leaves office there will not be an America left to lead.
They are quite literally breaking our hearts.
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Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.