America has really come to embrace the idea of torture. It was once viewed as something that Americans would never condone, much less make a public policy.
The tide turned when Alberto Gonzales called the Geneva Conventions regarding torture "quaint" and then said that they didn't apply because we weren't holding "Prisoners of War", we were holding "Enemy Combatants" which is a term never heard before in international policy.
Next was the propaganda storm that these "terrorists" were pure evil and the only way to prevent future 9/11's was to pull their information out by force. There was no other way, that's how crazy these terrorists are.
Once you have one group that you are willing to torture then the slide towards using it on anyone is a quick and easy journey.
The TV show '24' made a situational case for it. If someone (i.e. A Terrorist) had information that might prevent the deaths of thousands of people would it be OK to torture the information out of them. Many Americans said yes, with a big smile.
The real indication of widespread acceptance is that torture is now featured in many hit movies. While gore has existed in movies for decades it was usually relagated to the quick kill, ala Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street. Rarely did a movie come out like The Marathon Man where someone was shown being slowly, methodically, tortured by another person. It was just considered too disturbing to most people.
Now there has been a glut of movies like the Saw series and Hostel that feature it and advertise it to draw folks into the theatre.
This is a subtle but clear indication of America's downward slide as a moral leader in the world. We used to be able to point at the government and say that it's not us, it's them, but increasingly we have to look deeply into our souls as a people and realize that we are no longer different than them.
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