To Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

For his legislation demanding that the Army’s field manual on prisoner treatment be used as the Defense Department standard. In the wake of scandals at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and elsewhere — scandals crippling to U.S. efforts to be seen as “liberators” of oppressed peoples in Iraq and the broader Middle East — the Pentagon leadership has lost the trust of the American people. Just as serious, soldiers on the front lines have been left without clear guidance or standards on how to treat detainees.