Today there is an excellent op-ed in the NYTs reminding us about the tragic
side of the Revolutionary War. Americans were the first insurgents and held in
horrible prison conditions in New York and on prison ships. More men died in these
prisons than died on the battlefields. The British said these men were insurgents
and not entitled to protection as prisoners of war. This was before there were
international treaties on treatment of prisoners of war. Our very own first
Americans were treated as we have treated the "enemy combatants" and insurgents
in Bush's GWOT. The precident existed before and our very own American history