"What happened was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little..."

by Mary

So Bush bluntly admits that he authorized torture and the country just yawns as Marcy aptly put it. After all, only a few of the MSM have picked up the piece while it is blared widely throughout the world press.

And why do our media think this is such a hoo-hum deal? Because they've seen that it doesn't matter to the American public. In fact, as Glenn notes, Congress collaborated with the president in saying that he had the authority to treat "unlawful combatant" in what ever manner he wished. And fortunately for Bush, they agreed that he is the sole arbiter of when someone can be designated a "enemy combatant."

It was obvious when Abu Ghraib happened that the torture state was Bush's handiwork. After all discussion around the effectiveness of torture and the use of "harsh interrogation techniques" (also known as "torture-lite") go back to at least 2002.

I thought when the pictures surfaced, the public would be outraged and the Bush administration would be forced to stop using it.

But no. Year after year after year we've been reading about how Bush's policies were working. And each time the Congress had a chance to do something to make an issue about it, they've folded and thus made all of us accomplices to this evil policy.

Habituation is an art form for the Bush administration as they have learned from some of the best teachers in history on what you can do to pull people down the slippery slope into accommodating evil. By now it has rendered people numb and mute as a great evil is done in our names and now being done with our knowledge and quiet assent.

So let's not assent and let's not go quietly. Support the ACLU's call for an independent prosecutor. It's finally time to bring some accountability on this issue.