By the book.

46 Republicans, 43 Democrats and 1 Independent voted in favor of defining and limiting interrogation techniques that U.S. troops use on terrorism suspects. The bill is attached to a the larger $440 billion military spending measure. The White House has threatened to veto the bill altogether, saying it would limit the President's ability to carry out the war against terrorism. The measure would require troops to follow the interrogation guildlines presented in the Army Field Manual and bar "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment" of U.S. prisoners. Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, was the main sponsor for the bill, a former POW during the Vietnam War. "We demanded intelligence without ever clearly telling our troops what was permitted and what was forbidden. And then, when things went wrong, we blamed them and we punished them. We have to do better than that," he said.

Apparently McCain's getting a lot of support from both parties on this, as indicated by the vote, and from outside the Capitol Building. Former secretary of state Colin Powell supported the measure and said it would help address the "diplomacy crisis" brought on by the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The proposal arose from a string of questions from troops in the field about how to handle and treat enemy detainees, but received no response from their superiors. House Republicans are proving to be an obstacle in that they don't want it attached to the military spending bill. Opponents of McCain's proposal say it is "unnecessary and duplicative", since those responsible for Abu Ghraib have been accounted for.

My two cents? I salute and support the measure. It's not asking military personnel to do anything new. It's basically saying to follow the guidelines set in the Army Field Manual about how to handle enemy detainees and how to interrogate them. Passing this as a bill would give it more emphasis and allow for some accountability if this occurs again. To say that it is unnecessary because the people behind Abu Ghraib are accounted for is ridiculous because it could happen again. There's that little issue of Gitmo too. If standards are applied, people can be held accountable for their actions and be questioned if the rules aren't followed. Investigators can say, "it's in the book…why didn't you follow the procedure/protocol?" And McCain's not even asking to create new standards…just use the ones in the Field Manual! Although I don't see why the troops couldn't figure out to look in the field manual. That could be a whole other issue.

They're used in business, science, art, music, medicine, and numerous other fields. Standards may not be followed all the time, but people can be held accountable to them. They attempt to make sure that people play by the rules, even though the bad guys don't. I hope the House passes the measure with enough margin to overturn the veto. This measure is needed to give the possibility that crap like Abu Ghraib doesn't happen again. Again…it's nothing new…McCain's just asking the troops to follow the book and make the best judgements possible based on those standards.