Total number of POWs murdered by us: 26

I stopped reading NY Times columnist Friedman because he's a crushing bore on Iraq, Arabs and globalism, but this column is great. 'If all the stories about the abuse of prisoners of war by American soldiers and C.I.A. agents, surely none was more troubling than that at least 26 prisoners have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 - in what investigators have concluded were acts of criminal homicide. President Bush just appointed Karen Hughes to head up yet another U.S. campaign to improve America's image in the Arab world. I have a suggestion: Just find out who were the cabinet, C.I.A. and military officers on whose watch these 26 homicides occurred and fire them. That will do more to improve America's image in the Muslim world than any ad campaign. Republicans in Congress went into overdrive to protect the sanctity of Terri Schiavo's life. But they were mute when it came to the sanctity of life for prisoners in our custody. Such hypocrisy is not going to win any P.R. battles.'