Bush's Legacy

According to a recent poll by The Economist, the Chinese are less tolerant to the use of torture than are Americans. How did the use of "enhanced interrogations" lead to the citizens of a democratic nation being more accepting of torture than those living under an authoritarian regime? We've come along way since George Washington said:

Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner]. . . I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause… for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.

As well as:

Treat them with humanity, and let them have no reason to complain of our copying the brutal example of the British Army in their treatment of our unfortunate brethren who have fallen into their hands

Thank you George W. Bush for taking American down this path.