We are a nation of laws, but unfortunately, we are also a nation of lawyers, wily politicians, and an overzealous military apparatus, in which certain lawyers as instructed by certain government officials spend an inordinate amount of time, energy, and resources, to come up with ways to "legally" circumvent or to interpret laws in such a manner as to support USA tortuous actions both domestically and abroad which are, in fact, clear violations of that law.
In general, and almost without exception, the United States, feels that it is above the law in circumstances in which the law doesn't favor their actions and since the United States is not a country that can be trifled with, it is able to have its way. America spends a lot of time justifying its actions, in a false belief, that such justification, makes their actions right or legal, when in actuality, it does neither. Wrong is wrong, no matter how you try to dress it up, and the use of semantics to cover your actions, along with willing public speakers and writers that press your point, ultimately won't change the true colors of your actions.
To make matters worse, it is the America public and, in particular American soldiers that will suffer the blowback of America's illegal and poorly reasoned tortuous actions. When the United States shows no respect for the Geneva treaty that it is a signatory to, in which they play fast and loose with both the letter and the spirit of the law, it takes no stretch of the imagination to recognize that other countries and principalities will also do the same at some point, at some time, somewhere, to some one.
The United States can only lead by example, and its actions or actions of its proxies in regards to its torturous behavior to detainees, to combatants, to prisoners of war, is clearly objectionable. To make matters worse, none of it is even necessary, as torture in of itself, is highly debatable in regards to any accurate and actionable information being obtained. Torture, is though, quite sadistic, quite painful, quite degrading, and it also has long-lasting physical as well as psychological damages inflicted to those that are tortured.
Certain peoples within the United States, believe that it is necessary that we be the world's biggest bully, that if certain people that we detain don't obey our commands, or aren’t obedient to our desires, that it is thereby imperative that we show them who the real boss is, because any other action would show weakness and the United States can never be shown as weak.
But in weakness, there is great strength. Again and again, great nations have changed, or been toppled not from arm insurrection, not from violent upheaval, but have been changed because they have been shamed into right action. These brave men, unlike their oppressors, will not give in to hate, nor to the infliction of suffering, nor to the wrongness of justice that oppresses, but they will instead resist and they will be disobedient to man's law wrong applied, to man's strong arm wrongly used, and they will instead answer only to the Higher law.
Torture is an injustice; it has no place in the American lexicon, and will only leave a great trail of tears as America decays into a wasteland of hatred, hypocrisy, and hollowness.