Hypocrisy (once again) reigns

From today’s online New York Times: "The tradition in this country of a law enforcement agency that had absolute power over people, we've got to break them of that. I think it'll take years. You can't change a cultural mind-set overnight.” Maj. Andrew Creel commenting on training Iraqi security forces in proper treatment of detainees.

Hmmm. It seems that law enforcement having “absolute power over people” is not a good thing in other countries, but apparently it's OK here (the PATRIOT Act, for example) as long as it's in the name of national security.