Sigh

Senators McCain and Biden Question U.S. Treatment of Iraqi Prisoners. The jist of this story is that the Justice Dept, headed by that paragon of jurisprudence himself, John Ashcroft, wrote a memo back in March that authorized the transfer of detainees out of Iraq by the CIA, a practice which could possibly be considered a serious violation of the Geneva Convention and which could be treated as war crimes.

McCain nails it:

"These conventions and these rules are in place for a reason, because you get on a slippery slope and you don't know where to get off," McCain, who was held prisoner by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, said.

"The thing that separates us from the enemy is our respect for human rights."

Clearly, by "us" he is not referring to the present administration, but to the American people as a whole. This administration has clearly taken a head-first dive down that slippery slope. I wouldn't expect many nations to come rallying to our defense should the Bush administration win another term in office. Bush has squandered nearly all of our alliances and goodwill within the international community with his "you're either with us, or against us" attitude. Well, rightly or wrongly, most are now against us (well, his administration anyway) because of his arrogant foriegn policy decisions.

War crimes... As if things weren't already FUBAR, now we have this.

The next 9 days can't go by quickly enough for me.