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Putting US credibility at stake

May 6, 2005

THANKS FOR the editorial ''An indefensible outcome" (May 3). As you mentioned, US human rights abuses in detainment centers in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo Bay must be addressed by nonpartisan, internationally recognized groups if the United States is to have any credibility in the world.

What is most disturbing about US detainment, and rarely addressed, is the fact that the Bush administration's logic behind the detainment of prisoners since 9/11 is not only a violation of the Geneva Conventions but also of our own civil laws.

The administration has asserted that US actions are justified because the actions of the terrorists were ''unprecedented in history." This reasoning is illogical and serves as a weak rationale for despicable behavior.

Despite the shock of 9/11, modern history is riddled with similar unprecedented atrocities: the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Holocaust, Rwanda, ethnic cleansing. Our civil laws as well as the Geneva Conventions ensure some sense of civility in times of war and crisis. If we ignore these standards, we are no different from the people who create ideologies to justify their acts of terror.

MARITA O'NEILL
Marblehead

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