Since arriving in power, President Bush's neo-conservative hard-liners staked out a "go it alone" policy. They convinced the president that we, the mighty, did not need the rest of the world.

Despite years of painstaking international negotiations, Bush just walked away from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and unilaterally abandoned the Russian missile treaty. America must do what is good for America.

Then came Sept. 11, 2001. Everything changed. We needed the world. Despite the president's snubs, the world responded.

Huge crowds turned out throughout the world to support America. Countries everywhere honored our requests to seize assets and make arrests. France and Germany played pivotal roles in dismantling al-Qaida operations. Germany remains the only country that actually convicted someone for the Sept. 11 attacks.

All that was forgotten as Bush set his sights on Baghdad. The go-it-aloners scoffed at the concerns of the world community. Citations of international law were derisively dismissed. That is "Old Europe." Let them eat Freedom Fries.

Last week came another sharp reminder of the need for global order. Horrific pictures of American POWs and dead soldiers were broadcast to the world.

Immediately, the president invoked international law, and called upon the assistance of an international organization, the Red Cross. The president made clear: Iraq better not harm our soldiers or subject them to humiliation or the wrongdoers will be tried as war criminals.

But if the president wants to protect our captured soldiers, he must do more than utter words. He must show America's unfaltering commitment to the letter and the spirit of the Geneva Convention, and the Convention Against Torture.

He must start with prisoners from America's "war on terrorism." Brutal conditions have been reported in the U.S. prison at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Prisoners are forced to sit or kneel naked for hours while being questioned. They are hooded, doused with ice water, hung from the ceiling by chains, deprived of sleep, forced to stand for long periods, and are the target of humiliating verbal abuse by women soldiers.

According to The Wall Street Journal, one U.S. intelligence official acknowledged they might authorize a "little bit of smacky-face" during interrogations. Maybe sometimes more. In December, two prisoners at the U.S. Bagram prison died of beatings. Though the military coroner ruled both as homicides, no charges have been brought.

One dare not imagine the fate of those we turn over for questioning by countries we know use "real torture."

Conditions at our military prisons cannot be verified because the Bush administration has said international law does not apply to these prisoners. We may be waging a "war on terrorism," but according to the administration, they are not "prisoners of war" and have no rights under the Geneva Convention. Thus, despite requests from human-rights groups, no agency like the Red Cross is allowed into Bagram.

Recently, John Ashcroft's Justice Department successfully argued to a U.S. judge that no country's laws protect prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay, because it is not in any country.

Such legal niceties only inflame much of the world. Many distrust our motives and resent our brash use of power. Others have come to view us through Al Jazeera's eyes.

It is time to remember that we are the good guys, and act like it. For our soldiers and our future, we must lead on this issue. The president may not know all of the details of the Geneva Convention, or the Convention Against Torture. But surely he remembers a line from his favorite philosopher: "Do unto others... ."

Jenny Durkan is a Seattle attorney and board member of the Center for Women and Democracy at the University of Washington. She previously served as an adjunct professor at the UW School of Law and is a former gubernatorial executive counsel.

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company

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