How we got here
If you wonder just how we got to the point at which a Supreme Court ruling affirming that torture is bad is cause for celebration instead of a very routine matter, you should read this article about David Addington, longtime confidant of Vice President Cheney and now his chief of staff. In an administration whose senior members are nonlawyers almost to a man and woman, Addington and his proteges (e.g., William J. Haynes, Defense Department general counsel) and their, shall we say, creative legal viewpoints have carried disproportionate weight, which they have wielded like clubs:
Rear Admiral Donald Guter, who was the Navy’s chief JAG [Judge Advocate General, or military lawyer] until June, 2002, said that he and the other JAGs, who were experts in the laws of war, tried unsuccessfully to amend parts of the military-commission plan when they learned of it, days before the order was formally signed by the President. "But we were marginalized," he said. "We were warning them that we had this long tradition of military justice, and we didn’t want to tarnish it. The treatment of detainees was a huge issue. They didn’t want to hear it." In a 2004 report in the [New York] Times, Guter said that when he and the other JAGs told Haynes that they needed more information, Haynes replied, "No, you don’t."
OK, got that? "Experts in the laws of war" were blown off by a political appointee with no active-duty military experience who couldn't be bothered with facts and was condescending as all hell besides. There's a recipe for success.