I get it, the rules of international law apply to everyone -- except us.

Via Joe Conason, a question prompted by the Human Rights Watch report:

Salon.com | Joe Conason's Journal Question:"... [T]he Geneva Convention has as a signatory, the United States. How does it reconcile its being a signatory to Geneva Conventions and the conditions that [exist] in Guantanamo Bay? This is one of the issues that was in the [HRW] report."

Mr. Boucher:"... The United States made very clear that we will treat detainees, Guantanamo or elsewhere, in a manner that's consistent with the Geneva Convention even though we don't necessarily agree with all these groups over precisely how they're covered. So, we have pledged that and we have committed to that and we will try to -- we will ensure that we do that, that we do treat detainees consistent with the Geneva Convention."

The issue isn't the treatment of the prisoners, whose present conditions are consistent with reasonable standards. What worries HRW is the State Department's insistence that the Geneva Convention doesn't apply to those captured in Afghanistan (just as the Justice Department says the Constitution doesn't apply to "prisoners of war," including American citizens, who are arrested here). One potential danger of this policy is a blowback effect. American service personnel could be taken prisoner by a government that disregards international law -- and uses our government's ambivalence about the Geneva Convention as an excuse to mistreat our people.

That's one of many reasons why Human Rights Watch is indispensable.