déjà vu all over again

["Devine, James" <jdevine@xxxxxxx>]

from SLATE's survey of today's major US newspapers:>The papers note that
Gen. [Tommy] Franks began his press conference yesterday by offering his
condolences to the families of those killed "in our ongoing operations in
Vietnam." He later corrected himself.<

in less amusing news:
>The Wall Street Journal reports that the Bush administration is "preparing
legal procedures to hold suspected al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners as long as
authorities consider them dangerous, permitting indefinite detention." The
paper adds that the administration is also considering "whether to classify
membership in al-Qaida as a war crime, allowing prosecution of captives from
Afghanistan even if they can't be linked to a specific violent act or
terrorist plot."

>As one administration official explained it, "Even identifying these guys
is a problem. And when that's the case, one option you have to think about
is simple incapacitation for the foreseeable future."<

There are these folks who are hard to identify, so you declare them to be
war criminals following the age-old principles of guilt by association --
and then "incapacitate" them. (I guess this why Tony Blair's good friend
Silvio Berlusconi sees Western "Civilization" as superior.)

Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxx &  http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine