A SUICIDE PACT

Rush Limbaugh:

"Did the North Koreans honor the Geneva Conventions as interpreted by our courts when they took the USS Pueblo and tortured the sailors? Did the North Vietnamese abide by the Geneva Conventions when they tortured McCain?"

Of course not. That's the cruxt of the matter. The whole basis, on which the Geneva Conventions are founded, is reciprocity. People are afraid to criticize McCain on this subject because of what he experienced and had to endure. But in reality, his horrible experiences actually argue against his position.

What he had to suffer as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam was brutal torture, Bush is seeking legal aggressive questioning. McCain should know better. Shouldn't he? America's adherence to the Geneva Conventions did not protect him even though he was a legitimate POW, which the al Qaeda detainees are not. And, Hanoi had ratified the Geneva Conventions and thus was legally bound by them. Al Qaeda has not and are not.

To the extent that it is possible, the Geneva rules attempt to bring some 'civility' while wars are being fought. Giving these protections to those who do not follow the rules of reciprocity, produces a one-way street of protection, thus transforming these conventions into a suicide pact to the party that tries to follow them.

John McCain is one of the Senate's true war heroes, unlike others that I won't mention, but it seems that his personal experience is clouding, rather than clarifying, his perspectives.

Rush:

"We've gone from the Geneva Conventions not even applying to terrorists to having them apply to terrorists, to preventing us from interrogating terrorists effectively. This is going to go down as the event that will result in us getting hit again."

"This interrogation stalemate is going to go down as the event that will result in us getting hit again -- and if we do, I can tell you where fingers are going to be pointed on this program: at every senator, Republican or Democrat, who stood in the way."

So if the restrictions on interrogations that McCain, Warner, Graham and now Colin Powell, are advocating should result in another 9/11, or worse, then they will have sacrificed the lives of women and children for what? To protect the terrorists and to protect the soldiers from possible harm? The question then begs to be asked and was asked by Dr. Jack Wheeler, "Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?"