The US has lost all moral authority

This makes me embarrassed to be an American. The CIA director just admitted in testimony before Congress that the CIA did waterboard some detainees (remember, they aren't prisoners). Now the White House press secretary says we could do it again. I'm waiting to hear John McCain to respond to this. As a former prisoner-of-war, I'd expect him to come out strongly against this. He, better than just about anyone on the national scene, should be able to tell you that (episodes of 24 not withstanding) when you torture prisoners, the information you get (I won't call it intelligence) is worth almost nothing. They'll tell you anything just to get you to stop. I could go on, but it was covered better than I could ever do it here and here. I especially liked the last paragraph of that first story:

Alexis de Tocqueville, the French historian, politicist, and observer of 19th century America, observed that "America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." It is important for people of faith to impress upon Americans and our leaders in Washington that America's goodness, and hence its greatness, is seriously compromised by the practice of torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments of detainees.

As the LA Times pointed out, Congress has twice passed laws requiring the military and the CIA to obey the Geneva Convention, but the White House (and the apparently spineless Attorney General) continue to be unable to see what the rest of the world knows...