Fallacy From The Oval Office

Ray McGovern points out a June 7, 2004 Legal Memo signed by President George W. Bush that was declassified in 2007, in which the President "reasons" that:

Of course, our values as a nation, values we share with many nations in the world, call for us to treat detainees humanely, including those who are not legally entitled to such treatment. (emphasis added)

This is part of the hairsplitting over the status of so-called enemy combatants as opposed to genuine prisoners of war.

Morons!

The laws of the United States and the Geneva Conventions to which the US subscribes state that all people are entitled to humane treatment. That's why the laws were codified: to give sanction and recognition to this fact.

People are not treated humanely just because the law says so. The law requires us to treat people humanely because it is right. There's no middle ground.

Furthermore, the law also states that only courts can determine the guilt or innocence of prisoners.

Or, as that legalist St. Paul said in his Letter to the Romans:

... in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. Romans 2:1.