This is an old article by Glenn Greenwald, but it has in one place lots of links and information documenting how the US government (that's us) has killed over 100 people in custody when torture tactics went too far.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/30/accountability/
Now I guess it may make us feel better to respond that "they're all terrorists anyway so who cares", but if we're open-minded enough to give this a careful reading we have to conclude that not all these people were terrorists; these are detainees, many picked up on random sweeps through Iraq and Afghanistan. Our government has been doing the same thing that we condemn authoritarian regimes for doing. When the Viet Cong did this to John McCain it was torture. When the Soviet Union did it to dissidents it was torture. And yet in our current political environment we have one party (Republicans) who enthusiastically embrace torture, and a second party (Democrats) who seem at best ambivalent about it and certainly unwilling to take it on.
Our political discourse starts with an assumption that "we're the good guys". But this isn't self-evident to people in other places. We have to prove it every day.
I am now a wacked-out, fringe Leftist nut for taking the position that torture is wrong, which was a majority position in this country on September 10, 2001.
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