I am read­ing another biog­ra­phy of Theodore Roo­sevelt. It is 1902, and the Amer­i­can peo­ple are out­raged over secret reports of atroc­i­ties com­mit­ted by Amer­i­can sol­diers against the insur­rec­tos in the Philip­pines (under Amer­i­can con­trol since the Spanish-American war). Par­tic­u­larly revolt­ing is the use of the so-called “water cure,” which inflicts a suf­fer­ing which “must be that of a man who is drown­ing, but can­not drown.” Furi­ous, Pres­i­dent Roo­sevelt orders Sec­re­tary of War Elihu Root to send a cable to the Com­man­der of the Philip­pines Army:

THE PRESIDENT DESIRES TO KNOW IN THE FULLEST AND MOST CIRCUMSTANTIAL MANNER ALL THE FACTS… FOR THE VERY REASON THAT THE PRESIDENT INTENDS TO BACK UP THE ARMY IN THE HEARTIEST FASHION IN EVERY LAWFUL AND LEGITIMATE METHOD OF DOING ITS WORK, HE ALSO INTENDS TO SEE THAT THE MOST VIGOROUS CARE IS EXERCISED TO DETECT AND PREVENT ANY CRUELTY OR BRUTALITY, AND THAT MEN WHO ARE GUILTY THEREOF ARE PUNISHED. GREAT AS THE PROVOCATION HAS BEEN IN DEALING WITH FOES WHO HABITUALLY RESORT TO TREACHERY MURDER AND TORTURE AGAINST OUR MEN, NOTHING CAN JUSTIFY OR WILL BE HELD TO JUSTIFY THE USE OF TORTURE OR INHUMAN CONDUCT OF ANY KIND ON THE PART OF THE AMERICAN ARMY.

The book was writ­ten in 2001, years before the phrase “enhanced inter­ro­ga­tion tech­niques” would enter the pub­lic con­science. Fast for­ward to 2009. For­mer Vice Pres­i­dent Dick Cheney explains Amer­i­can pol­icy on FOX News Sun­day:

I knew about the water­board­ing. Not specif­i­cally in any one par­tic­u­lar case, but as a gen­eral pol­icy that we had approved… It was a good pol­icy. It was prop­erly car­ried out. It worked very, very well.

What a dif­fer­ence 107 years makes.