Torture advocates opined that the use of non-maiming techniques (i.e., "torture lite") is a lesser evil, and might be legitimately employed by American interrogators to break a recalcitrant terrorist suspected of possessing valuable intelligence (e.g. the whereabouts of that ticking bomb) in order to keep Americans safe. In those years, torture advocates never envisioned the use of such tactics on a US soldier....What has made the slope so slippery is that anyone who threatens the Empire's ruling class is, in the minds of the latter, essentially "terrorists". The leaders of the ruling capitalist class in the US are becoming more and more insecure as their domination of most of the world is increasingly being threatened.
This class is now feeling so threatened by those who oppose, or fight back against the Empire that they are willing to treat their own citizens as they do so-called "terrorists". Hence, they have no reticence about using the same methods as they use against any foreigner who fights back against the Empire. This means that the ruling capitalist class is perfectly willing to cast aside all pretenses about the rule of law and Constitution which they have used to obscure their control of our society.
In a very real sense, it follows that all of us who oppose the rule of capitalists, or in any way inhibit their pursuit of power and profits, are now "terrorists", and can be dealt with accordingly. This is the message they are sending, and not too subtly, to the American people by their treatment of Bradley Manning.
Clearly, this is a desperate move on their part. Desperate people do desperate things. That is precisely why in the 1930s Germany's capitalist class turned to the Nazis to save them. However, this can set into motion a disastrous train of events for the ruling class. Once the smoke and mirrors of the rule of law is cast aside, all legitimacy of their rule comes into question by the people which, in turn, can result in wide-scale opposition. What they are counting on is that we will be intimidated.