I've been reading the news reports about the agreement between the three "rebellious" Republican senators and the Bush Administration on legislative language on interrogation techniques, compliance with the Geneva Convention and trial procedures for unlawful combatants. Washington Post news report and editorial: The Abuse Can Continue. I am sickened to my stomach by the positions being taken by the U.S. government. It reminds me how I felt back in 1973, listening to Nixon talk about Vietnam and feeling the worst aspects of the American Way of Life. I took the easy out back then -- I fled the country to Peru for 18 years.

Now every strong-man, authoritarian or sectarian government in the world has the model of how to finagle the wording of human rights provision from the beacon of liberty itself.