Hey punk. Who’s your daddy now?

PENTAGON TO DROP BASIC GENEVA RULE / But State Department objects to removal of protection from degrading treatment — This is just amazing. I kind of reminded of the punchline to the old joke where the bear says to the hunter, “You didn’t come here just for the hunting, did you?”

Washington — The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that bans “humiliating and degrading treatment,” according to military officials, a step that would mark a potentially permanent shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.

The decision culminates a lengthy debate within the Department of Defense, but will not become final until the Pentagon makes new guidelines public, a step that has been delayed.

Another proud moment in American history.



  1. Mike Voice says:

    The lawmakers argue that differing standards of treatment allowed by the Field Manual would violate a broadly supported anti-torture measure advanced by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. McCain last year pushed Congress to ban torture and cruel treatment and to establish the Army Field Manual as the uniform standard for treatment of all detainees. Despite administration opposition, the measure passed and became law.

    So that’s it…

    A “broadly supported” bill states the Army Field Manual will be the standard.

    Dubya doesn’t want to ruin his “no veto yet” bragging rights… so he just signs the bill into law, and then alters the Field Manual…

    Nice.

    Karl Rove is still a genius. Evil, but a genius.

  2. JohnnyM says:

    apparently John has a sizeable collection of his favorite administraion offcials in fetish gear….

  3. ECA says:

    Ok,
    and what stops them from NOT doing what WE find degrading..
    the worst they could do is make me stand out in the nude…

  4. Yes, it’s pretty much all I collect. Well, that and those nifty new “states” quarters. What fun!

  5. Neal Saferstein says:

    Fairness??

    Neal Saferstein

  6. Tim Harris says:

    Do you have any of Bush ? My…uhm…girlfriend wanted to know. yea. that’s it.

  7. AB CD says:

    >Strict adherence to international human rights standards

    But the Geneva Convention is still being followed.
    I thought that was the gold standard?

  8. hmmm..Bush…let me see what I can do.

  9. Mr. H. Fusion says:

    But the Geneva Convention is still being followed.
    I thought that was the gold standard?
    Comment by AB CD — 6/6/2006 @ 5:13 am

    It isn’t and it is, is someone might call human rights a “gold standard”.

  10. RTaylor says:

    Thank you Dvorak, very much. The sight of those characters in S&M attire forced me to take Pepto Bismol. I can only hope my stomach settles by dinner. It’s bad enough to see them straight out the photo pools.

  11. AB CD says:

    I guess you’d like to give the enemy the benefits of the Geneva Conventions without making them meet its obligations then?

  12. Mr. H. Fusion says:

    #11, the difference between “us and them” is that we are a nation of laws. When we stoop to their level, then we become no better then they are. After WWII the excuse of “I was only obeying orders” was laid to rest. We know the difference between right and wrong and are expected to do what is right.

    We drop 1,000 lb bombs on civilian buildings and call them “collateral damage”. We torture our prisoners. We deny our prisoners rights currently spelled out in the Geneva Conventions. We shoot innocents because they unexpectedly come too close to our soldiers. We deny civilians medical care because it might interfere with our operations. Where do you get the idea that we play by the rules?


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