It is a difficult task to regard one's enemies as human beings, which means extending a justice toward them similar to what is offered to oneself & allies. Gitmo fails this. We don't need to be as "bad" as Nazis & Stalinists to find ourselves on the same moral ground. By the summer of 1945, we were so weary of death & conflict that we were prepared to atomize every Japanese national on Earth if necessary to bring the war to an end. A combination of insane samurai-inspired, lost-cause resistance by the Japanese armed forces & four years of racial caricature propaganda here made that terrible moment in history possible. Fortunately, we only had two atomic bombs in our arsenal, which were enough to convince the Japanese Emperor that the time had arrived to speak directly to his subjects. In 2005, it is not the American people who desire this evil process of dehumanization toward fanatical Baathists & Islamic fundamentalists, but our government &, in an awful irony, their right wing Christian apologists & supporters.
