Not only did DOD take down the draft doctrine documents after I posted the Doctrine for Joint Nucler Operations, but the entire Joint Electronic Library (JEL).

Talk about overkill.

This totally encapsulates the Rumsfeld Defense Department: Be an idiot, get called on it, and then REINFORCE the judgment by over-reacting.

Anyway, it looks like Human Rights Watch gets most of the credit (or blame)—HRW released the draft Joint Doctrine on Detainee Operations and a letter to Rusmfeld warning the draft doctrine “will formalize the U.S. military’s illegal policy of holding ‘enemy combatants’ without protections under the Geneva Conventions.”

Steven Aftergood’s summary is better than mine.

[Here are links to drafts from September 2003 and March 2005, as well as first and second rounds of comments from the services and a contractor.]