"The War"

Posted: Sep 21, 07 2:26pm

I'm hopeful about Ken Burns' new series. It sounds fabulous, of course: a sincere, honest and moving history of those times, and probably a wonderful tribute to the people who suffered and sacrificed - in ways that I can't even imagine - in the name of their country, their comrades and their principles.

It is a particular hopefulness that I mean, though. Hopeful that viewing this will effect a little shift in one particular way people think about and talk about terrorism, and about Iraq. It is said that "this is a different kind of war". This is used to justify actions, such a treatment of prisoners, that are counter to U.S. law or international treaty.

The Ken Burns series should remind us that, yes, dealing with terrorists is a different kind of war - one that is far less horrific and devastating, and far less a threat to America, than World War II. Somehow, in the midst of that worst nightmare ever experienced by humanity, the U.S. still believed that honoring international treaties on prisoners was important. Things like the Geneva Conventions are mankind's first hopeful baby steps toward real civilization. Why should we abandon those hopes and principles now?