On the 62nd anniversary of D-Day, when vast amounts of human carnage covered Western Europe, its important to note what we were fighting for and why. No, not the revisionism of the NeoCons, but the real reasons.
Out of this hell on earth came the Geneva Pacts, which sought to bring some sanity to an inarguably insane situation like war. Among these were, as quoted in the Los Angeles Times.:
"That provision — known as a "common" article because it is part of each of the four Geneva pacts approved in 1949 — bans torture and cruel treatment. Unlike other Geneva provisions, Article 3 covers all detainees — whether they are held as unlawful combatants or traditional prisoners of war. The protections for detainees in Article 3 go beyond the McCain amendment by specifically prohibiting humiliation, treatment that falls short of cruelty or torture."
It is this humanity that was to set us apart from our enemies, an attempt to reduece the suffering.
The Bush Administration and its apologists, however, believe that the rules, either of our Constitution, or International Law, don't apply to them, and, as a corollary, the world sees us as a vicious bloodbeast, as oppressors and not liberators. Our enemies point to our hypocrisy concerning law and human rights. Our friends point to our hypocrisy and human rights, and we, as Citizens of these United States, must bear the weight of the antipathy when we go abroad.
It is this, more than anything, that rains death on our doors.
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