Have a look at the American values on display during her confirmation hearing. Here, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), having gotten a nonresponsive answer from Rice as to whether water-boarding and forced nudity constitute torture, puts things into perspective:

SEN. DODD: The face of US foreign policy is in the person of the secretary of State, and it's important at moments like this to be able to express yourself aside from the legalities of things, how you as a human being react to these kinds of activities.

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And with the world watching, when a simple question is raised about techniques that I think most people would conclude in this country are torture, it's important at a moment like that that you can speak clearly and directly without getting involved [in legalisms].

I understand these involve some legal determinations, but as a human being how you feel about this, about to assume the position and be responsible for pursuing the human rights issues that this nation has been deeply committed to for decades, is a very important moment.

CONDI RICE: Senator, I maintain the commitment and will maintain the commitment of the United States to norms of international behavior and to the legal norms that we have helped to —

DODD: Let me ask you this, then. What would happen if someone did this to an American? What would happen if we saw on television that a captured American was being subjected to these kind of activities? How would you react to it?

RICE: Senator, the United States of America — American personnel are not engaged in terrorism against innocents.

She will not — cannot answer Dodd's question. She cannot tell us how she would react as a human to watching the kind of torture perpetrated by Americans perpetrated on Americans, because the only human answer is to be horrified by it.

She instead falls back on a talking point: We're not the terrorists. They are. The implication: Anything our guys do is legitimate. And the people we're torturing aren't "innocents" — they're terrorists.

The tragedy is that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were perpetrated at random on a population that was comprised of mostly innocent or non-terror related suspects, according to a Red Cross report. Whether it was "torture" against innocents or "terror" against innocents is up for grabs, but innocent people were badly hurt by people acting under directives approved at the top of the chain of command.

And the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, who are now at the end of their ropes after years of detention, isolation and abuse, have not been given trials, have not been proven as threats against the US. They also have not received any of the due process and protection under the law that America supposedly stands for. And the "trickle" of information they've coughed up has been of dubious value.

But the stupidest aspect of not publically disavowing torture is the goodwill and respect it costs the US — the strategic political costs associated with giving up the moral high ground.

To quote former counter-terrorism director Richard Clarke from the the Criterion edition of The Battle of Algiers: "You can be good at counter-insurgency and be good at counter-terrorism, but you'll lose the war if you're bad at what I call political strategy, and what I call the battle of ideas and values."

Realizing the stakes, Dodd follows up with Rice to try to get an answer out of her.

DODD: I wasn't asking you what they have been charged with. I'm asking whether or not, if you saw an American be treated like this, how would you react?

RICE: We expect Americans to be — because we are parties to the Geneva Conventions, we expect Americans to be treated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.

DODD: Of course we do. And do you consider these kinds of activities to violate the Geneva Conventions?

RICE: We believe that there are certain categories of people, the Al Qaeda, for instance, who were not covered by Geneva, that in fact it would have been a stretch to cover them under Geneva, would have weakened Geneva to cover them. But the president said that they had to be treated, as military necessity allowed, consistent with the application of Geneva.

"As military necessity allowed." In other words: If the military decided to torture suspects — not convicts, not proven Al Qaeda members, not even people linked to terrorism — they had a free hand if they deemed it "necessary." This isn't something that we, the American people, got to approve. It's not something that Congress got to approve, or that the Supreme Court got to affirm. It's not something allowed by the Constitution, or the Geneva Convention, or the Bible. It's just a decision: Our guys can torture people if they want to.

Dodd calls her on it.

DODD: Do me a favor. At the end of all of these hearings, I'd like you to spend about 15 minutes with John McCain and talk to him about this stuff. I think you'll get some good advice when it comes to the subject matter, someone who has been through this, about what the dangers are when we have sort of waffling answers about these questions and then Americans can be apprehended and what happens to them.

Conservatives skewer liberals constantly for being "wishy washy." For not having "values." For succumbing to "moral relativism."

Now liberals can reply: "Oh? We're moral relativists? What do you call an administration that condemns torture and supports human rights around the world — unless it's our troops abusing prisoners at will? Is that morally relativistic? Would Jesus have said: 'Go unto the prisoners, and choose from them a random group, and lay into them with sticks, and burning torches, and horrific biting dogs'?"

And what do you call an administration who tracks down and singles out the legal mind most responsible for creating a permissive legal climate for torture — and then makes him Attorney General of the United States?

Floppier than a pre-Viagra Bob Dole. As morally inspiring as Marion Barry. And as prepared for world leadership as Idi Amin.

Congratulations on your upcoming confirmation, Condi. And good luck. With America's power to persuade and inspire heading south faster than a share of Krispy Kreme stock, you'll need it.

E-mail James Norton at jim@flakmag.com.

— graphic by Derek Evernden (derek@ocellus.net)