"Now we're just haggling over price."

"I wonder why this did not appear in the U.S. press," muses Andrew Sullivan. Of course, he doesn't really have to wonder:

"President Obama recently warned Libyan President Muammar Gaddafithat the brutality inflicted on his own citizens was 'outrageous and it is unacceptable", saying it violates 'international norms and every standard of common decency'. He said those responsible 'must be held accountable'. President Obama ended his remarks by saying 'the United States will continue to stand up for freedom, stand up for justice, and stand up for the dignity of all people.'

"The United States cannot stand up for justice and the rule of law when it sits idly on its own record of torture. It diminishes the weight of its moral authority to influence others around the world when it treats its binding legal obligations as options it can choose to exercise or ignore. If President Obama is sincere about standing up for fundamental values, then America's actions must live up to its rhetoric." - Morris Davis, former chief prosecutor at Guantánamo.

Of course, neither Obama nor Bush is on the same level as Qadaffi. But the difference seems to be one of degree, not of kind.

... Sully also links to this useful timeline of psychologists' participation in crafting American torture methods.