“We tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values … we did some things that were wrong.” That may be the understatement of the century so far, but at least it’s an improvement on “[I] laid the foundation for peace by making some awfully difficult decisions.” Score Obama 1, Bush 0 in the acknowledgment of the torture game show. It’s a start. There is no hiding the fact that America in the 21st century embraced torture as a routine tool of foreign policy—or if not torture, at least “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment” as long as it was not “equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.”

Torture (or extremely enhanced nontorture) techniques approved for use by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the War on Terror included waterboarding, keeping prisoners cold, naked, and wet, and sleep deprivation of up to 180 hours. For the record, 180 hours equals seven and a half days. The pain accompanied by 180 hours without sleep may or may not be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying organ failure or death, but it can’t be pleasant. No one said that interrogation should be pleasant, but no one said it had to be nasty. In any case there is no evidence that nasty works. The expert consensus is that it does not. Whatever else it may be, keeping prisoners cold, naked, and wet without sleep for days on end certainly is not civilized. It is beneath the dignity of a civilized country. It is beneath the dignity of the United States of America. But the government of the United States of America does many things that are beneath the dignity of the United States of America.

It has, however, banned torture. On January 22, 2009 President Obama issued Executive Order 13491 banning torture by US government personnel. This order does not, however, ban US government personnel from subcontracting torture to third parties overseas. Press reports suggest that so-called “extraordinary renditions” of prisoners to third countries with dubious human rights records continue.