Conditions of the War on Terror may, at some points, necessitate easing some of our formerly accustomed standards of due process. As in the case of the four British citizens recently released from Guantanamo after being held there for four years. They have now been released by the British police, who are quite convinced that there's nothing to try them for, and don't even want them back for questions. But, while at Guantanamo, they were subjected to treatment so severe -- they all allege torture -- that three at least made false confessions of terrorist acts.

Well hey, you can't be too sure. They were accused terrorists.

But this strict standard of justice isn't practical to apply everywhere. In Iraq, for example, there are enough civilian victims of unjustified force that we've set up an office to distribute blood money to them, or their surviving relatives -- but we haven't investigated many incidents at all far enough to give the thugs disgracing the uniform of our good troops a proper court martial.

There just isn't time to do every nice thing in the world...

(British police link via Atrios).