Supporting our troops

Gonzales Nomination Draws Military Criticism (washingtonpost.com):

The letter signed by the retired officers, compiled by the group Human Rights First and sent to the committee's leadership last night, criticizes Gonzales for his role in reviewing and approving a series of memorandums arguing, among other things, that the United States could lawfully ignore portions of the Geneva Conventions and that some forms of torture 'may be justified' in the war on terror.

'Today, it is clear that these operations have fostered greater animosity toward the United States, undermined our intelligence gathering efforts and added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world,' the officers wrote, referring to the Bush administration's detention and interrogation policies.

Although it stops short of directly opposing Gonzales's nomination, the three-page letter contains sharp criticism of his decisions related to military legal issues and argues that he is 'on the wrong side of history.'

Basically, these retired senior Pentagon officers recognize that by flouting the Geneva Conventions, based on memorandum drawn up by Gonzales, we gained little, or nothing, yet we have placed our military at greater risk for future confrontations. Not good.