Torture? You brought her! (And him, and them, too.)

The Guardian has an excellent article by Seymour Hersh on the situation at Guantanamo, the first of two pieces leading in to his new book on Abu Ghraib. From Hersh’s previous reporting in the New Yorker and other places, it’s clear that he has a phenomenally clear-eyed view of the ways in which America has corrupted its own values in waging the war on terror. Two things stand out in this new article. First, American security forces and secret police – and why shouldn’t we now use the loaded terms usually applied to totalitarian states and banana republics? – have committed numerous war crimes, including torture and even murder. Second, the line between enemies and neutrals long ago evaporated, and with it probably also vanished the line between neutrals and citizens. There are already American citizens like Jose Padilla cooped up in military prisons without charge. God only knows what else has already been done to our fellow citizens in the name of fighting an abstract noun, or what might be done to any of us if he disagree with the president and his minions.