Rumsfeld violated me

I second Tiziana's comments reacting to new revelations about the treatment of detainees in U.S. military custody. When I was a Public Affairs Officer at the Pentagon, we were assured that, despite their classification as "detainees" and "enemy combatants" and not "prisoners of war," Guantanimo Bay detainees were being treated as good as or better than the standards afforded prisoners of war by the Geneva Convention. We parroted talking points about humane treatment, culturally sensitive meals, etc., not because we were trying to deceive anybody, but because we believed them to be true. After all, we're supposed to be the good guys, right? Now it turns out that Rumsfeld, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, and others were making liars out of good, honest military professionals. I feel violated, not only because my Public Affairs colleagues and I apparently were used and lied to, but also because the conduct itself, perpetrated by military men and women no different from me, goes against everything I was taught by the military about how American military professionals are required to behave.