By Ben Cohen

Andrew Sullivan elegantly crystallizes why the torture memos are so important:

If you want to know how democracies die, read these memos. Read how

gifted professionals in the CIA were able to convince experienced

doctors that what they were doing was ethical and legal. Read how

American psychologists were able to find justifications for the

imposition of psychological torture, and were able to analyze its

effects without ever stopping and asking: what on earth are we doing?