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As the Boston Herald reported, "U.S. authorities freed 500 Iraqi prisoners yesterday in a push to empty jails of detainees no longer deemed a threat." The release comes as the thousands of prisoners held by the U.S. continue to strain the detention system in Iraq, the paper said.

That system was stressed to overflowing this year as American forces rounded up suspects "in campaigns to secure Baghdad and surrounding areas," the Herald reported. All told, U.S. authorities captured 17,000 new suspects this year alone. Even with 500 prisoners released this week, 25,800 Iraqis remain in the detention system.

The release of the prisoners was also an effort to appease critics of the detentions in Iraq who have argued that they were motivated by sectarian animosities. According to Jurist, the University of Pittsburgh's Legal News and Research Website, "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, speaking to the newly released detainees on Thursday, said the release is part of an effort to harmonize relations between the Shiite and Sunni populations. Sunnis claim that as many as 90 percent of all detainees are Sunnis, which they attribute to the high number of Shiites serving in the official security forces."

Journalists have been given only limited access to the detainment system in Iraq, but it is clear from the access that has been given that the system differs substantially from the domestic justice system with its right to legal representation and habeas corpus.

Miguel Gonzalez, a member of the New Mexico National Guard who works both as a guard in the Iraqi detention system at Camp Cropper and in the prison system in New Mexico, told the Albuquerque Tribune: '"The main difference is that detainees here are a lot more afraid. They don't know what they're walking into when they come through the front gate in a blindfold." In the prison system in New Mexico, he said, "we have a lot of repeat offenders who know exactly what the inside looks like."

According to the Tribune: "Though only a few thousand inmates are held at Camp Cropper, the facility processes all detainees in U.S. custody, which number about 25,000. Once they've been held for six months, a detainee's status is reviewed by a panel of military officers, and they can be released if the panel deems they do not pose a continuing threat." The paper noted that the length of detention in the Iraqi system is 309 days.

It is, perhaps, to be expected that a system of military detention of this sort will be used by a victorious military in an occupied and defeated nation. Nevertheless, the United States, with its heritage of freedom and its unique Constitution, has long been a beacon of hope to the oppressed masses in other nations. As such, the U.S. must be held to a higher standard of behavior than other nations.

As the leader of the free world, the U.S. must lead by example. Now several years after the downfall of Saddam Hussein, it is high time for the U.S. to abandon its military detention system in Iraq and help that unfortunate nation create a proper justice system that respects the natural rights of Iraqi citizens.

If that were to happen, maybe the millions of Iraqi refugees who have fled the country since the invasion will be able to return home. As it stands, as many as 4 million refugees have been made homeless by the war, with 2.2 million believed to be in Syria and Jordan, according to the Reuters news agency. Many of those may be coming to America soon. According to Reuters, "U.S. officials pledged last month to start taking in as many as 1,000 Iraqi refugees a month via new processing centers around the region." Some will be coming from Syria after that nation agreed on November 8 to allow U.S. officials into the country to process Iraqi refugees.

A better solution would be to establish respect for the rule of law in Iraq in order to put that nation on the road to freedom and prosperity so that Iraqi refugees can return to their homes.