How the "Good Guys" Act

Newsweek has obtained a confidential memo written by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to President Bush, in which Bush's lawyer agrees that the Geneva Conventions should not apply to persons captured in the ever-widening "war on terror." Gonzales wrote:

"As you have said, the war against terrorism is a new kind of war. The nature of the new war places a high premium on other factors, such as the ability to quickly obtain information from captured terrorists and their sponsors in order to avoid further atrocities against American civilians. In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."

Quaint ... prohibitions against physical abuse, yadda yadda yadda. Even if we accept the premise behind Gonzales' opinion, which government office exactly is certifying that everyone grabbed up in the Middle East is a "terrorist"? And not a cab driver who made a wrong turn?

People like Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who is already famous for being outraged "over the outrage" about Abu Ghraib, will logically argue that people who brought down the Twin Towers don't deserve rights. That is logical. It was logical when the Roman Empire brutally suppressed those Goths, not to mention the sect of Christians which arose in the same part of the world where we're so hated today ... where the Romans were hated in their day too, and with good reason.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said, "When you are the good guys, you've got to act like the good guys."

But we're awfully busy right now acting like the Roman Empire, stomping on everybody who gets in our way.