Mudslide

You'd think we'd get over it by now--trusting that our elected officials have any integrity, that is. In the great showdown that wasn't, Senators McCain, Warner and Graham have kept the letter of the law-Common Article 3 of the General Conventions- intact, while allowing the Administration to flout it whenever they decide to want to. Apparently CIA officers who torture prisoners in a manner incompatible with international standards of human rights will not be liable for prosecution. After all of the fancy wrapping paper is pulled off, we are left with the same stinking pile of garbage. So much for the soi-disant evangelical Christians in high governmental places. Apparently they have forgotten one fundamental Judeo-Christian principle of a godly life-Jesus' injunction to "love your neighbor as yourself."For the United States, setting a moral standard in the midst of war is not just a matter of paying respect to our heritage as a cradle of democracy-it is wise policy. When we give human rights homage in theory while abusing our enemies in practice, we set an example for fundamentalists in other nations who consider us degenerate and immoral already. Why should they not emulate us?