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As we all learned in the schoolyard, two wrongs never make a right.
Well, no, but life is rarely as simple as the schoolyard (Actually, what I learned at the schoolyard was that kids with muscles beat up kids with brains, but that's a little off topic!). In life there are truly some situations in which there is no "right" choice. In those circumstances, the goal is not to make a right, but to prevent an even worse wrong. Some times a lesser "wrong" can dapen the effect of a greater one. War CAN BE one of those lesser wrongs, but it's a matter of debate whether the current one is.

Please note that I'm deliberately speaking in abstract tearms here and not really trying to defend the Patriot Act or the war.

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The main reason for the Geneva Conventions is enlightened self-interest; if we abide by them, perhaps our enemies will too when dealing with American prisoners; if not, then it is they who are clearly in the wrong.
I think this is HIGHLY unlikely. I'm betting there would be beheaddings with or without our mis-treatment of prisoners. Rather, I think the reason we should do the right thing is because it's "right", not out of self-interest. Those doing the beheaddings could also claim self-interest (actually they even claim it's "right", but I digress). That is the whole problem with terrorism, though. It doesn't adhere it any sense of what we consider to be "right" and uses that power against us. The moral values that make us strong are used against us to make us weak. But when we cave and behave immorally, then we've really begun the downard decent. I'd agree that our behavior toward the prisoners was a large step in that direction.
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-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.