And we wonder why the world is sickened by the War Crimes Amendments to indemnify retroactively ...

The White House has drafted amendments to the War Crimes Act that will indemnify policymakers (the upper-ups) and government officials (the middle-ups) from criminal charges for authorizing abuse and torture of "prisoners captured in the War on Terrorism campaign."

The White House stated that these amendments "will apply to any conduct by any US personnel, whether committed before or after the law is enacted."

Eugene Fidell (President of the National Institute of Military Justice) said, "I think what this bill can do is in effect immunize past crimes."

My mind wanders to the horrific premeditated rape and murder of Aber-Qassim al-Janabi, a 14 year-old girl and the murder of her father, Qassim Hamza, her mother, Fikhriya Taha and her 5 year-old sister, Hadeel Qassim Hamza in Mahmoudiya by four of our soldiers after they hit some golf balls and had a drink or two.

They returned to their barracks and had grilled chicken wings afterwards.

That, my fellow Americans, is only one aspect of The War on Terror -- a particularly horrible one, to be sure. But giving these soldiers "automatic immunity" will not be a high point in this session of Congress.

[I deliberately put a less gruesome photo -- from among those taken at Abu Ghraib -- at the top of this posting for my sister's sake and the sensitivity of one of my daughters.]