THE TRIAL

The trial of U.S. Army Capt. James J. Yee began today -- as shameful an event as anyone could have imagined, with plenty of shame to go around.

In fact, scratch that “Operation Whitewater” stuff, even though this has gone from an espionage case to one focusing on the nonissues of pornography and adultery, just as Bill Clinton saw his prosecution start on a failed real estate deal and end on illicit oral sex.

But the attack on Yee, once a Muslim chaplain for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should have a more military name. For instance: “Operation Infinite Shame.”

Shame on Yee, I guess, for having an affair and hurting his wife. But affairs happen. Humans do such things, and neither the rules of God nor the military can prevent it, and it is wrong for this shame to be used as a weapon.

Shame on U.S. Navy Lt. Karyn Wallace, who had an affair with Yee -- rather, she participated in about 20 sexual encounters; there seems to have been little affection there, based on her behavior now -- and turned him in for immunity from prosecution for the same crime. (Like being homosexual, having an affair is officially unacceptable to the military.) Can she really be the kind of officer the Navy seeks? She commits a crime, finks on her conspirator unrepentantly and gets away with it.

Mostly, shame on the military for poking its nose into private business, for the almost certain hypocrisy of its prosecutors, for giving Wallace a deal that makes betrayal look like a good idea, for possibly ruining a marriage because it was embarrassed by its inability to consummate efforts proving Yee was a traitor.

Its motivations are obvious. Its justice is arbitrary. Its actions vile.