Controlling The Military Lawyers

As part of its campaign to rid the military of those decent enough to oppose torture and the abandonment of the Geneva Conventions, the Bush administration has put an aggressive torture advocate in charge of promotions of military Judge Advocate General corps - the 4,000-member uniformed legal force. Charlie Savage has the details. This institutional pressure cannot be over-estimated. If the next president continues Bush's torture program, it runs the risk of becoming entrenched into American military practice - especially as its opponents in the military can be weeded out systematically. Sooner or later, the virus will imprint its own DNA on the American military itself.