Phil Carter, who I lauded yesterday, uncorked a great post on how the government is abusing the unlawful combatant designation to coerce defendants into pleading guilty rather than actually taking their cases to trial. This sort of outright abuse of the justice system is absurd and depressing. It seems every day I read about abuses like this — threatening to kidnap the wives and children of guerillas in Iraq, handing over people we detain to foreign governments so that they can be tortured, and generally turning our backs on the things that, in my opinion, make our country different from so many others.