I don't think that the US Armed Forces teach "torture" at West Point and other institutions of "defense" but they do teach persuasion and interrogation. Having said this, war is dirty business and when you are pursuing someone in Manila, Fallujah or in Khe Sanh and you catch them and their buddies have taken your friend hostage you beat them to an inch of their life until they tell you information. The School of the Americas taught torture. The US government has been involved in violations of the Geneva Convention in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and numerous other places. There is a culture of violence in the US that leads to more people being put in prison here, than in just about any other society on the planet.
Seymour Herch's article talks about a systematic abuse in US "prisons" in Iraq. His report is partly based on a US Army report. Amnesty International has also documented reports of torture from the very beginning of the invasion.
This is not isolated stuff. The sad part is that the pictures seem to be the main reason the "respectable" press brought it forward. If I don't see it it mustn't exist.
Press reports on US torture.
Discussion of torture in a historical context.
Hersch New Yorker article.
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