Speaking of the US abandoning the rule of law and acting like a rogue nation: Assassins R Us by Chalmers Johnson points out that the US plans to expand efforts to conduct international assassinations without the consent of the sovereign governments in whose borders the assassinations will (and now have) take(n) place. (Commondreams.org)

If we do this to others, others will do this to us...

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This item was published in the worthwhile blog Tom Dispatch (nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch), which has items of concern such as this one about the militarization of the U.S., in which former generals predict our Constitution will be unraveled in the event of another attack against the US, even while the US makes such attacks more likely by bombing civilians and leaving nuclear materials unguarded, providing looters and others with the ingredients to dirty bombs (telegraph.co.uk).

(That last item, the idea of the US leaving multiple nuclear facilities unguarded, is still the most bizarre aspect of the invasion of Iraq's aftermath. Why on earth would anyone secure the oil facilities, but not the nuclear facilities??? Even if the government secretly believed that Iraq was defenseless, and even if the main purpose of the war was to acquire control of oil resources, any reasonable person or organization would know that nuclear materials require security, if only for our own sakes. Why the huge, gaping lapse on this?)

As the month of November 2003 sets records as the most fatal for U.S. troops occupying Iraq (SFGate.com), the costs of war in terms of the freedoms we cherish are still mounting. Algierian Benamar Benatta was locked in U.S. prisons for 26 months, even after being cleared of terrorist associations in November of 2001. (Washington Post) Judges chastised the government for trumping up charges, keeping him hidden beyond legal deadlines, and other abuses. The government didn't blink. He was 'disappeared,' kept in solitary confinement, harassed while sleeping, hassled while in shackles. The government does not plan to apologize. Now, in fact, the government hopes to deport Benatta to Algeria, a country he was seeking asylum to avoid returning to, as he could be imprisoned or executed for leaving his military duty. That suits the U.S. government just fine.

Democratic, freedom-loving governments do not 'disappear' visitors, do not hold people without charges, do not abuse people who are shackled. The U.S. government is crossing into the territory of despotic, rogue regimes that we used to mock. It's so bad that a senior judge of our ally, Britain, has declared that the US is engaging in a 'monstrous failure of justice' and compares US military tribunals to kangaroo courts. (Commondreams.org)

The U.S. government's human rights crimes don't just hurt those imprisoned: they hurt all of us. As WWII veteran Peter Cohen writes for Commondreams:

The question is not whether Guantanamo is part of the U.S. and covered by the Constitution; the question is whether the reputation and honor of the U.S. can be sacrificed on the altar of fear. How can we profess to teach democracy to others when this illegal and cruel imprisonment violates every principle of the rule of law? Holding the Guantanamo "detainees" is a dark stain on our nation¹s history that will not be removed by anything that we may accomplish elsewhere.

There have been over 1,500 "excess" violent civilian deaths in Baghdad during the 'protective' U.S. occupation, according to iraqbodycount.net.

From April 14th to 31st August, 2,846 violent deaths were recorded by the Baghdad city morgue. When corrected for pre-war death rates in the city a total of at least 1,519 excess violent deaths in Baghdad emerges from reports based on the morgue's records.

IBC's latest study is the first comprehensive count to adjust for the comparable "background level" of deaths in Baghdad in recent pre-war times. It is therefore an estimate of additional deaths in the city directly attributable to the breakdown of law and order following the US takeover and occupation of Baghdad....

IBC researcher Hamit Dardagan said "The US may be effective at waging war but the descent of Iraq's capital city into lawlessness under US occupation shows that it is incompetent at maintaining public order and providing security for the civilian population. The US has toppled Saddam and discovered that it won't be discovering any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So why is it still there? And if the US military can't ensure the safety of Iraqi civilians and itself poses a danger to them, what is its role in that country?

Iraqbodycount.net also had a good article back in August about the injured civilian population called Adding Indifference to Injury, which tabulates reports of Iraqis who were wounded, though that information has been hard to come by. It's bad enough that the U.S. forces have made a concerted effort not to keep any record of the number of civilians they kill, but to deny assistance to the wounded surely makes more enemies than friends.

The United States has created a prison on Guantanamo Bay that operates entirely outside the law.

Within the walls of this prison, foreign nationals may be held indefinitely, without charges or evidence of wrongdoing, without access to family, friends or legal counsel, and with no opportunity to establish their innocence.

Attorneys representing Britons, Australians, and Kuwaitis earlier this month had one positive piece of news: the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case determining whether or not the US' prisoners have any legal rights. (BBC) Under the Bush Administration's policy, the U.S. can abduct anyone, anywhere, and so long as they do not touch U.S. soil, they have no human or legal rights of any kind.

Under this theory, any American traveling anywhere in the world can be abducted and held forever by agents of any other nation, so long as they don't touch the soil of the home country of their captors.

This is a bad policy. Especially if others do unto us as we do unto them. Yet the Bush Administration is convinced this policy is making the world safer for Americans. Clearly, there are some unique thought processes going on there, which may not apply to earth.