This one isn't going away

"I wouldn't join the International Criminal Court. It's a body based in The Hague where unaccountable judges and prosecutors can pull our troops or diplomats up for trial.

"And I wouldn't join it. And I understand that in certain capitals around the world that that wasn't a popular move. But it's the right move not to join a foreign court that could -- where our people could be prosecuted." - George W. Bush 09/30/04

"Men without conscience are capable of any cruelty the human mind can imagine." - Dick Cheney 01/26/05

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights First are bringing a lawsuit against Rummy and three others on behalf of people tortured in the gulag: Rumsfeld Sued Over Abuse of Prisoners by James Gerstenzang Los Angeles Times 03/02/05.

The executive director of an organization called Survivors International which provides services for torture victims gives us some of the reasons why its not going away: Struggling with Our Own Inhumanity: The price of torture by Uwe Jacobs San Francisco Chronicle 03/02/05.

We see men and women totally overwhelmed by the memories of what was done to them. I think of a man so traumatized that he would shake and sweat every time he came to see me. He cried out through his tears: "Doctor, they turn you into a piece of meat!" Another client vomited in my wastebasket after the memories of torture overwhelmed him. Many women sat with their heads buried in shame, sobbing uncontrollably. The physical wounds had healed, but the psychological trauma lived on.

The techniques employed by the American torturers in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay are among the most insidious and effective. Sexual abuse, whatever form it takes, is an extremely damaging form of torture. For tormentors to penetratethis most private realm produces deep feelings of despair and self-loathing; I have heard survivors say they would have preferred to be beaten. When they are forced into humiliating acts, they can feel responsible for participating in their own degradation. The shame they feel eats away at them forever.

By embracing torture as American policy, the Bush administration has put themselves on a road that's not easy to leave, complicates US foreign relations in major ways and have forced US soldiers to choose between following orders and obeying the law.  The implications of this are big, no matter how willing the mainstream media are to help the Bush administration sweep it under the rug.  This is way more than a public-relations problem.  And it isn't going to be solved or ended by superficial marketing ploys or jingo attempts to equate patriotism with support of torture.