The future of torture

Obama has 'left the door open' for state-sanctioned torture to be a part of any future War on Terror in the United States, and if he loses the presidency, there's a possibility that it might reemerge. Eric Lewis warns:

A South-African style truth commission, which would have had the virtue of getting all the facts out into the open and at least creating a record that would have precluded future officials from claiming that there was ambiguity or uncertainty about whether they had the power to torture under the Constitution, didn’t happen either, despite earlier indications of support. Harboring a vain hope for what has turned out to be imaginary reconciliation, the Obama administration has failed in its legal and moral obligation to create an effective and durable bar to torture. 

Andrew Sullivan confronts the persistence of American exceptionalism in a Republican Party that endorses torture.