JAG CENTRAL

From the Guardian (UK):

Only the 17,000-strong US forces, with their all-terrain Humvees and Apache attack helicopters, have the run of the land, and they have used the haze of fear and uncertainty that has engulfed the country to advance a draconian phase in the war against terror. Afghanistan has become the new Guantánamo Bay.

Washington likes to hold up Afghanistan as an exemplar of how a rogue regime can be replaced by democracy. Meanwhile, human-rights activists and Afghan politicians have accused the US military of placing Afghanistan at the hub of a global system of detention centres where prisoners are held incommunicado and allegedly subjected to torture. The secrecy surrounding them prevents any real independent investigation of the allegations. "The detention system in Afghanistan exists entirely outside international norms, but it is only part of a far larger and more sinister jail network that we are only now beginning to understand," Michael Posner, director of the US legal watchdog Human Rights First, told us.

COMMENTARY: Good to know that a sense of perspective and lack of bias continue to pervade the UK media. Yes, abuses happen. Yes, the jail network has probably gotten so large that it is often out of our ability to control. But is it really "sinister?" And as for international norms, what exactly are the countries that are following these "norms?" Name one country in the entire region that gives better treatment to its prisoners than we do. And that's even with Abu Ghraib factored in. There's work to be done, that's obvious. But such a liberal slant makes the Guardian lose credibility in my book.