Nicholas F. Benton's White House Report

In a terribly sobering assessment, Amnesty International reported in its 2004 Annual Report released yesterday that the defense of human rights and civil liberties is under its greatest attack globally in over 50 years, dating back to the end of the Nazi era.

The report documents human rights abuses in 155 countries, including executions, detentions without judicial process, hostage taking and "disappearances" by state agents.

While the report condemns attacks by al Qaeda and others as "sometimes amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity," is says that principles of international law that could prevent such abuses are being undermined and marginalized by powerful countries, such as the U.S.

"Governments are losing their moral compass, sacrificing the global values of human rights in a blind pursuit of security. This failure of leadership is a dangerous concession to armed groups," said Irene Khan, the secretary general of Amnesty International, as reported on the Guardian Unlimited website.

Amnesty International has earned widespread respect, globally, by being balanced and measured in its documentation of abuse. If anything, leaders of the group are sensitive to the consequences for their organization's credibility of exaggeration or hyperbole for mere effect.

Therefore, the powerful language in its assessment of the "state of the world" from the standpoint of human rights in this year's report is especially troubling.

"The global security agenda promoted by the U.S. administration is bankrupt of vision and bereft of principle. Violating human rights at home, turning a blind eye to abuses abroad and using pre-emptive military force where and when it chooses has damaged justice and freedom, and made the world a more dangerous place," Khan said yesterday.

But she added that "the war in Iraq has led to a new wave of abuses but diverted attention from many old problem areas of the world. While governments have been obsessed with Iraq, they have allowed the real weapons of mass destruction – injustice and impunity, poverty, discrimination and racism, the uncontrolled trade in small arms, violence against women and children – to go unaddressed."

Confirming the assessment that the "world is far less safe" as a consequence of the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq last year, the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) stated this week that the occupation "has become a potent global recruitment pretext for al Qaeda, which now has more than 18,000 militants ready to strike western targets."

"Recruitment is accelerating on account of Iraq," it reports, and about 1,000 al Qaeda supporters are active in Iraq, itself. And while the invasion "galvanized" al Qaeda, it weakened the campaign against terrorism by, among other things, splitting the western alliance, leaving the U.S. and its ally, Britain, isolated.

In Iraq, itself, the turmoil is now so deep, according to the report, that it suggests 500,000 U.S. and British troops will be required to keep order, a more than three-fold increase from the 145,000 there now.

Ironically, the sharp critique of the IISS comes from an organization that contributed to the climate for an invasion with a September 2002 report suggesting that "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq could pose an imminent threat to the west. However, the report was rife with caveats and calls for independent assessments that were removed by British government officials and contributed to "falsely sexing up" the threat assessment.

But yesterday's sharpest condemnation of the Iraqi fiasco came from a former staunch Bush ally and GOP loyalist, Gen. Anthony Zinni, former commander of the U.S. Central Command, who used the strongest language to condemn the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its aftermath in an interview with Lou Dobbs on CNN last night.

Gen. Zinni appeared with author Tom Clancy, with whom he's co-written a new book Battle Ready. Neither Zinni nor Clancy have reputations as doves, Dobbs noted, but both are now scathing in their indictments of the administration's "betrayal and misdirection" of the American people leading to the invasion.

"The decisions that were and are being made are militarily disastrous," Gen. Zinni said. "They're all based on `pie in the sky' best case scenarios. We were promised we'd be met with flowers in the street. We went to war at the wrong time with the wrong priorities."

He added, "We've lost 799 kids and another 4,500 are injured and seriously maimed. We've spent $200 billion so far. Where are we for all that?"

"Some people are calling me unpatriotic for saying these things," Gen. Zinni concluded. "I think it's unpatriotic not to ask these questions."