War's Collateral Damage

Among Washington insiders the odds of war with Iraq rise and fall daily--60-40, 50-50, 40-60. What seems clear, though, is that war or no war, the collateral damage to this country at home and abroad from the Administration's war policies has already been considerable. Let's put aside for the moment the Administration's exploitation of the conflict to ram through unwise domestic laws unrelated to war. Here we'll focus on injuries inflicted by alleged war-related policies:

§ Civil liberties. A federal court upheld the government's assertion that it could strip Yasser Esam Hamdi of his rights as a US citizen. He was allegedly taken prisoner on the battlefield while fighting with the Taliban. The conservative judges ruled that the courts have no role in reviewing the government's claim that a prisoner was fighting for the enemy; also, that the war on terrorism does not end until the President says it does and that the "battlefield" can be anywhere. Under this decision a citizen accused of being a member of Al Qaeda may be imprisoned indefinitely, without a lawyer or judicial review of the evidence against him.

§ Condoning torture. A December Washington Post report, which has provoked disturbingly little outrage, revealed that US intelligence officers have been torturing Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects. The techniques include sleep deprivation, beatings, imposing painful positions over long periods and withholding medical attention; they blatantly violate the Geneva convention. US forces have also handed over Al Qaeda suspects to foreign police, who subject them to even crueler tortures. Such a policy debases this country's ideals of justice under law.

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