I the idea that we have a little jar of sympathy and we have to be careful about wasting it because there might not be enough for the next person who needs it?

I don't think it works like that. Sympathy is l;ike love, if you hoard it up, it goes all stale and useless, but the more you give, the more you have to give.

I note that Bush has now decided that Taliban prisoners are Prisoners of War and covered by the Geneva Convention after all. That's very encouraging actually - being willing to make a U-turn in public like that.

I'm not being ironic there - there are plenty of politicians who are constitutionally incapable of admitting they got something wrong. (In the case of Bush it is obviously extremely welcome if he turns out not to be like that...)