Guantanamo -- Take 2

Slowly the investigations proceed and slowly the truth emerges. There were, indeed, instances at Guantanamo of Koran mistreatment. Was there somewhere a thought that if Newsweek was bullied into retracting its allegations that the whole mess would go away?

As all despots and public misinformers eventually learn, to their dismay, the truth will out even if cleverly concealed for years.

Should we expect exemplary behavior from our soldiers and civilian interrogators? Given the circumstances that would be, at best, naive. We have untrained troops, mainly unskilled guards of average or below average intelligence, taking care of thousands of internees from totally different cultures.

Are the prisoners terrorists? Some are. None were involved in 9/11 but probably participated in smaller yet equally heinous acts. There are others guilty only of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Since none of them have any civil rights, advocates, or any semblance of power, it is impossible to tell which prisoners are dangerous and which are merely mistakes. A big enough net cast into an ocean will ensnare dolphins and porpoises as well as the target tuna.

We shouldn't worry too much -- those who committed the foulest acts were fired, we're told. It is even more re-assuring to realize that recruitment quotas are so underfilled that soldiers considered inappropriate military material will no longer be disciplined or discharged because manpower is needed, no matter how incompetent or psychologically unfit.

Let's send all the inadequate screw-ups to Guantanamo where they can continue the appalling treatment this administration feels is appropriate for anyone disagreeing with their moral world conquest agenda.

The mask of the unwitting Ugly American slips -- to reveal the disfigured phantom of Pennsylvania Avenue.