Does the Law Apply to the Lawless?

from UPI

Former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge says the United States was wrong not to give terror suspects due process protections.

Speaking on the BBC's 'World Today" program, the former Pennsylvania governor and first federal homeland security chief said he accepts some of the criticisms levied in a recent report International Commission of Jurists.

The group's report found that the U.S. treatment of detainees undermined international law.

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My comment: A nation of laws or a nation where some are not subject to the law? That is the question. We, as a nation, have always aspired to be an example to the world but what happens when we adopt a policy that puts some people outside the law? The Bush administration took the position that they were above the law and promoted a position that, as a consequence, there were other people who didn't deserve to be held accountable under the law. We used to complain when the USSR did it; when Cuba did it; when China did it. How can we take the moral high ground when we've turned out backs on the moral high and descended to the level of the people whom we've called "lawless" in the past?

If we have been called out for being in violation of international law, where does that leave us - and what can we do to remedy the situation?