To the editor:

What can the Pentagon be thinking? Did they not see the pictures from Abu Ghraib? Or understand the outrage of decent Americans and the world community? The decision to omit a ban on “humiliating and degrading treatment” from detainee policies (Journal-World, May 5) in defiance of the Geneva Convention means that American soldiers cannot claim protection from this, or logically any other, provision of that convention.

Whatever international respect and goodwill for America has survived the ongoing series of treaty abrogations, invasions, civilian casualties (“collateral damage” to Donald Rumsfeld and Timothy McVeigh), human rights violations, and denigration of the United Nations and Geneva Conventions will be seriously eroded.

This item needs to be moved from a note on page 3A into a national debate on the consequences of this small omission. Do the American people condone this behavior? Does it make us more secure?

Paul Enos,

Lawrence