In this wee essay, On Torture and American Values, David Peterson reminds us: ‘Once upon a time, it was the United States that urged all nations to obey the letter and the spirit of international treaties and protect human rights and liberties. American leaders denounced secret prisons where people were held without charges, tortured and killed. And the people in much of the world, if not their governments, respected the United States for its values’.

But that was once upon a time …