Wow... Charles P. Pierce On The Torture Report...

[Algernon Moncrieff]

13. Let me say at the outset that I rec this

Having rec'd, my problem with Pierce's argument (as opposed to your post):

1) The US did torture some prisoners during WWII, although the number is small in comparison to what Germany did, and what we did more recently.
2) We put Americans of Japanese descent (not foreign nationals; not resident aliens) into concentration camps. We took no such measures against Americans of Italian or German descent on any wide scale.
3) We were selective in our prosecutions of Nazis inasmuch as we organized the relocation and hiding of the Gehlen organization because they held a great deal of intelligence on our new enemies, the Soviets.
4) We won WWII with a segregated army and navy.

While we were light years ahead of the Nazi's and Tojo's Japan on the human rights front, we weren't saints. "Innocent" is not the word that leaps to mind.

Then came the Cold War, and our CIA helped train (in some cases) or turned the blind-eye (in many other cases) to the more imaginative practices of the secret police of many nations (Iran, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, Nicaragua). We think this report is bad; some of the nations we supported did worse things. Of course, most of our Cold War enemies also did despicable things.

...and we Americans have known about "enhanced interrogation", and we had a hint this kind of thing was taking place after Abu Graib.

Long story short: We gave away our right to judge a long time ago.