I do credit Big Mick highly for his comments and the experience he speaks from. I was never in the armed forces during the Vietnam War period and cannot speak directly to that experience; the closest I came was the Group W. Bench in the final attempt on the part of my draft board to extract me from my 3rd year in the Peace Corps and send me some place where my body might be more useful.

I note the President Bush is rather clear that "torturing Iraqi prisoners" is not right and those who did it will be punished. He said nothing about the imprisoned combatents in Cuba, who remain in limbo.

I also note that the Islamic media is covering these disclosures extensively, and this is just the kind of outrageous practice needed to line up more people against us all over the world. And of course, no one should believe this is the only incident of this type occuring in Iraq; it's just a well-documented one and there can be no justification or excuse for it. It's ironic that Saddam's torture of prisoners was one of the surviving moral justifications for the invasion and replacement of his regime.

Now we've apparently changed policy again from the goal of a democratically elected government to finding an Iraqi general who can run the place for us. Maybe I've skipped a few steps but that seems to be where the Bush Adminstration is running now. Watch out!

Charley Noble