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I have worked providing legal services to survivors of torture from around the world. To be violated in this way destroys people, no matter how much they work to really live again, even the most sucessful recognize they've lost a huge part of themselves. Despite the tremendous efforts they make at rehabilitiation, and the lives that are good in many ways after the torture, they find that they are shells of who they are or who they could have been. The impact of this on individuals is to destroy societies, and so we need to do whatever we can to demand our government stop torturing, or whatever it calls its behavior.
For a wonderful and chilling understanding of the impact of torture on society: Lawrence Weschler, A Miracle, a Universe, about the experience of Uruguayans and Brazilians coming to terms with the effects of torture in their societies.
