24 is a tv show, like many others where the cops bend the rules to get an edge on the criminals, purportedly because the bad guys are so devious and intelligent that they cannot be apprehended within the strictures of the laws. Yet in real life, the vast majority of criminals have demonstrated a propensity for stupidity and ignorance that blazes a mile-wide trail of evidence that cannot withstand modern forensics techniques. Very, very few pose much of a challenge, particularly when the cops already know what they’re up to and who many members in a criminal gang are.

The notion that Al Qaida is so secretive and omnipotent that legions of police, military investigators and jailers have to break the laws repeatedly is best summed up as a deliberately promoted urban myth. We know their longterm goals. We know their methods and their repeated choices of weaponry. And the way they divide their organization into cells means vital planning information remains dispersed and in relatively few hands.

So it remains a depressing fact that the violations of law and morality that have occurred under the anti-terror banner are not rooted in good detective work nor the well-polished art of war. The actions are crude, useless and represent a sadistic streak that was begun at the highest levels of government and reverberated throughout the ranks of other sadistic sick fucks.

It’s perfectly apt to compare it to military behavior during Hitler’s Nazi regime. ‘Just following orders’ remains a crutch and a defense too weak to stand. There have been US troops and commanders who - to their credit - refused to participate, but a great many joined in. And some enjoyed being sadistic bastards.

This is not new.

Much of the US penal system is rife with abuse and sadism. It’s a well-known fact that the California prison system actually was run by the Nazi Party and the racism and violence spawned by that was as criminal as anything the incarcerated had done.

Other states had or still have similar dysfunctions and corruptions. Tortures include isolation which has a demonstrable capacity to drive people crazy. Most people.

Its inception is not really rooted in partisan politics, though it’s quite clear that people who support ‘anything goes’ policies towards criminals (and terrorists) have an affinity to call themselves conservative. But these policies, conserving nothing, represent sadism and brutality. They don’t limit crime, rehabilitate anyone nor change anything for the better. They perpetuate a cycle and culture of violence and actually confirm to the incarcerated that there is no morality in the society they attack.

Humiliation and degradation? How many terror attacks did that prevent? None that have yet been documented. So what special fascination drives people to violate prisoners’ rectums and the physiological processes that occur there?

Simple: they enjoy it. Which cannot masquerade as national security or even institutional order. It’s a perversion. It’s an immoral presence in the psyches of every person who joins in. America doesn’t necessarily stand out as a leader of sick fucks, but it also doesn’t stand out for its moral capacity to resist and weed out the sick fuckism.

And until we come to grips with that, those not actively participating don’t have a chance of preventing it in the future. We may be the land of the free and the home of the brave, but we also remain a country in deep denial that shirks a critical moral responsibility.

Maybe Obama can shut down Gitmo, but the real, long term cure requires a massive social demand to end the prevalence of the policies and perversions of deeply disturbed sick fucks.