Olivia Ward of the Toronto Star says that history will judge the architects of the “War on Terror.”

As the second decade of a broken century limps into view, some in the United States and abroad are doing the math and demanding an accounting. They reject the argument that the horrific 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington excuse the shredding of the rule of law that came with the “war on terror.”

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So the dilemma remains: can a country that has allowed the rule of law to be flouted continue as a credible democracy, setting an example to ordinary citizens and claiming the moral high ground in the international community?

“The fact that a huge slough of people were engaged in torture and conspiracy to torture, with impunity, says something about the rule of law in this country,” laments Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “If we think we need to torture someone for any reason we’ll do that. What does that say to any police precinct?”

Or to America: “I’m very pessimistic on what I considered an emerging sense of fundamental rights,” he says. “In some ways civilization has been set back at least 100 years.”