If I'm out there as one of a bunch of soldiers and you and others are shooting at me, I consider you a POW if I capture you or, should you capture me, I would consider myself a POW.

In either case, the Geneva protocols should apply.

Note, though, that not every country has signed them. And what about, say, Iraq, where the government which signed the Accords may no longer exist?

Still, I hold that there is a thing called "human dignity" and another called "decency." They proscribe torture of POWs and the helpless, they set minimum standards for food, housing, treatment, sanitation.

OVERALL, I think that the US has a pretty good record in this area -- far better than that of, say, Saddam Hussein's administration or the Japanese in WW2. But even in those there were decent folks, just as there can be bad ones in the US military. This is not an excuse, but a statement of human fact.

I'll be more interested in seeing how this plays out than in endlessly discussing it without all the evidence.