“The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 [of the Geneva conventions] would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk,” Mr Powell wrote in a letter to Mr McCain released yesterday.
Can the USA project weakness any more strenuously? The left has been harping that this conflict must be treated as a police matter, but what they really want is to get this into the court system as a kind of WPA for lawyers.