An American Hero

Joe Conason writes about Matthew Diaz, "a truth teller who deserves justice," here, at Salon. Conason points out: "What his story shows, once again, is that the durable old stereotype of the military man who yearns for authoritarian rule and brutality is largely false...[Diaz] has proved that the most reliable defenders of the Constitution these days are not in the civilian ranks of government but among the senior military officers. It was the neoconservative law professors and political bureaucrats who authorized, encouraged and justified the worst depredations against human and constitutional rights, from Abu Ghraib to Gitmo. It was the men and women in uniform who warned against those policies and tried to amend them."

Well worth reading, especially after the declassification of John Yoo's evil memo.