Navy Lt. Cmdr. John McCain was held captive for 5½ years in North Vietnam, now he is a Republican senator from Arizona and the nation's most celebrated ex-POW. He has a crisp message for the Bush White House about how to treat detainees: You've got it wrong.
McCain is sponsoring a pair of amendments to the defense bill awaiting the return of Congress in September. In short, the amendments would:
• Bar the military from treating detainees in "cruel, inhuman or degrading" ways.
• Require military interrogators to stick to interrogation methods laid out in the Army field manual, the traditional guidepost.
The way the White House, the Pentagon, and Vice President Cheney have reacted, you'd think he released pictures of the Iraqi general who, in November 2003, was beaten and then stuffed headfirst into a sleeping bag, where he died.
If the Bush administration officials want to get past the prisoner-abuse scandals, they should listen to someone who learned those lessons the hard way at the Hanoi Hilton.
I agree with McClain's response, " This is not about terrorists. This is about who we are as a nation."
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