Lynndie-Abu-Ghraib-AFPGetty.jpg

U.S. soldier Lynndie England holds a leash that appears to be around the neck of an Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib Prison, in a photo that changed American attitudes about torture in 2005

(AFP/Getty Images)

Almost as disturbing as the Senate report about CIA torture methods was the reaction of most Americans to it. In essence, they embrace the practice with all the gusto of rooting for Jack Bauer, but there’s a plausible reason for that.

Consider: In 2005, a CNN-Gallup poll asked whether the U.S. should torture known terrorists if they know details about future terrorist attacks on our country. The vast majority -- 59 percent -- said no. Only 39 percent said it was acceptable, even in such an alarming and dire circumstance.

That poll continued on that sober and civilized track: What about forcing prisoners to remain naked and chained in uncomfortable positions in cold rooms for several hours? The vast majority (79 percent) said it was never justifiable.

Waterboarding? Same result: A whopping 82 percent said it was wrong, and a mere 16 percent said it was acceptable.

Again, this was January 2005. There has been no terrorist attack on our country in the decade since then, so it begs the question: What is happening here, and what has caused our cultural amnesia?

One key reason: There were no pictures passed around before the recent spike in pro-torture sentiment – notably in last week's Washington Post-ABC poll, which showed a support of the CIA's atrocious methods by a 2-to-1 margin – and photos usually change opinions.

The American people repudiated torture in 2005 was after seeing fresh photographs of Abu Ghraib, where a marine named Lynndie England became the poster girl for sadistic behavior at the Baghdad prison.

Images of her taunting prisoners, tying dog leashes around their necks, and grinning behind a pile of naked bodies were circulated worldwide, bringing shame to the country she served and an 18-month prison sentence to England herself.

Photos that depict an abusive act in real time change everything in the public mood -- ask Ray Rice about it sometime. With few exceptions, when the visual evidence is so striking, it usually marks the tipping point.

One would hope that such abuse is distinguishable from fictionalized accounts, but Hollywood doesn’t help. For example, while the Senate report stated that torture played no role whatsoever in the hunt and termination of Osama bin Laden, the movie Zero Dark Thirty depicted CIA waterboarding as critical to the mission.

That might explain why the recent CBS poll showed that 57 percent believe that harsh interrogation methods provide useful information to prevent terrorist attacks.

But in the absence of graphic images that depict such methods, the American public has become Dick Cheney’s posse, despite his extraordinary record of being wrong about, well, pretty much everything.

So the 59-percent approval of torture doesn't necessarily support the notion that America never ceases to be awesome and is incapable of human rights violations, as one viral video attests.

Speaking of cockeyed punditry, in his penultimate show Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert’s opening had his signature rhetorical flair: “Is American guilty of torture?” he asked. “No, we seem OK with it.”

And so it would seem, judging by numerous polls that suggest the zeitgeist grows more bloodthirsty with each rectal rehydration. But a single image of such an act would move the needle in a very telling and irreversible way.

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