Torture's Path of Destruction

With the latest horrors from Iraq showing that Iraqi government troops are torturing prisoners , the cynical viewpoint is to say that the Iraqi military is learning well from their American teachers. One might also say that the orders passed on to out troops from Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, and Cheney that led to torture abuses were picked up by the new Iraqi military command. However, the more important issue to deal with is that because the US has fostered torture, we are now viewed in the world community as no better than these animals who have tortured their prisoners to the point that "two appeared paralyzed and others had some of the skin peeled off their bodies by their abusers." The US has no moral standing on these abuses and our soldiers and civilians will suffer similar torture for many years because of the immoral actions of the Bush-Cheney administration. Not only do we have a President who obviously is so totally out of the loop that he continues to make speeches claiming that the US doesn't torture, but we actually have a vice-president doing all he can to keep any law being passed that would forbid torture in the future. How embarassing is this? It's like "The Omen" movies storyline has come true, and Satan has been elected and is dragging the country lower and lower. As horrible as it is with the torture situation, the real problem comes with Iran. There is no doubt that Iran is developing nuclear weapons and that their religious dominated quasi-govenment that calls for the destruction of Israel is unstable enough to use them. With our moral influence being at its nadir due to the abuses of torture and lies to support precipitantly invading Iraq, the US has no chance to stop the approaching disaster from Iran. Is there hope on the horizon? Maybe. The Senate passed a resolution with 79 votes that takes the first steps in getting out of the Iraq quagmire. The same Senate passed the anti-torture bill with 90 votes. The truly sad thing is we had to have an anti-torture bill. That's what happens when you have a venal administration that actually is pro-torture!