This report offers the best opportunity yet for us as a nation to come to terms with what our government did in our name. The debate is not historical or academic. Polls show that in the absence of public accounting, support for torture among Americans has ticked up, and many continue to wrongly believe that it helped to keep them safe. A future president might decide to reinstate "enhanced interrogation" in the name of fighting terrorism. Ultimately, the best guard against a return to the "dark side" is a populace that understands the moral and strategic costs of torture. It would be tragic if the CIA were allowed to muddy the waters by mounting a defense of this unlawful and immoral policy.