The United States Does Torture

A new article (link to shorter version) based on evidence from the Red Cross reports on treatment of the fourteen high-profile detainees who were kept in CIA "black sites" for years. The Red Cross's conclusion:

The allegations of ill-treatment of the detainees indicate that, in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture. In addition, many other elements of the ill-treatment, either singly or in combination, constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

This comes from the body legally required to monitor compliance with the Geneva Conventions.
Some things in the report have not been revealed before--notably American guards beating detainees by slamming them against the walls of their cells. Say whatever you like about the morality of sleep deprivation or exposure to cold temperatures--the kind of treatment described here is on par with Soviet Russia.
As the author of this article notes, we in the United States are left with a devastating contradiction. How do we move on from the abuses of the past, when they continue to play such an important role in our national image?