A reader writes:
You wrote:
"There is no state more abject than the man broken on the waterboarding rack, or frozen to near death, or forced to stand for days on end, or hooded and strapped to shackles in a ceiling, or having his legs pulpified by repeated beating, or forced to eat pork and drink alcohol against religious strictures."
I'd say that there is only one state more abject than that. The torturer, who has voluntarily abdicated his humanity and actively works to destroy the freedom of his brothers and sisters. And that pitiful state is exactly what we're being reduced to.