Joe Chip, i think you may be mising a very important point here. If any of those captured turn out to have directly planned the hijacks on September 11th, then i might have some sympathy with your views on this (though still can't say i'm happy seeing people shackled, drugged and hooded for days on end in the name of freedom and democracy).
But the point is that these people are (notwithstanding Rumsfeld's decision to make up a completely new term with no legal precedence; "unlawful combatants") either "prisoners of war" in which case the US has a legal obligation to treat them in accordance with a set of defined rules, OR they are "terrorist suspects" in which case they should be treated as innocent until proven otherwise in an established court of law... no i'm not suggesting they get cable TV and cordon bleu food; but the US is quite simply acting illegally whatever way you cut this - and the US does not have some right to ignore international law just because it was attacked.
or are you of the opinion that vigilanteeism is indeed the right way to run the world?
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