One, two, three, four--did you know that the use of torture has been historic US policy...
In 1920, a NAACP investigation found that during the US occupation of Haiti, US Marines routinely used torture.
In the late 1920s, intent on stabilizing Nicaragua in order to enforce loan payments to US banks. US policy makers defined the resistance forces as "bandits," an earlier equivalent to the "criminal prisoners" of the Vietnam War. Since the US wasn't fighting a legimate military force, any Nicaraguan perceived as interfering was commonly subjected to beatings, tortures, and beheadings.
The Toledo Blade newspaper won the publitzer Prize for reporting on atrocities committed by US Tiger Force Units in the Vietnam War, "Women and children were intentionally blown up... Elderly farmers were shot as they toiled in the fields" (allegedly John McCain blew away one such old man). "Prisoners were tortured and executed--their ears and scalps severed for souvenirs."
Colin Powell was assigned to investigate charges brought by a young soldier named Tom Glen, which exposed My Lai-like atrocities, and the use of torture by soldiers interrogating suspects. Powell never questioned Glen, or even assigned anyone else to talk to him. Instead Powell simply claimed that Glen's charges couldn't be true because US soldiers in Vietnam attended an hour long class which taught them to treat the Vietnamese courteously and respectfully...
Furthermore, the Wickersham Commission's 1931 Report on Lawlessness in US Law Enforcement found that, "The third degree" (torture) "is widespread. The third degree is a secret and illegal practice."
The 2002 Human Rights Watch World Report documented the systematic use of torture by US police.
Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist, has investigated human rights abuses in US prisons,"The plight of prisoners in the USA is strikingly similar to the plight of the Iraqis who were abused by American GIs. Prisoners are maced, raped, beaten, starved, left naked in freezing cold cells and otherwise abused..."
And the thing is, in the past 30 years, 122 imates on DEATHROW were EXONERATED and released...
Wow, maybe we shouldn't be teaching school children all about the American Way (wasn't it supposed to be TRUTH and JUSTICE).
Right you are George W., you tell 'em (all about the American brand of justice...) !!!