Pretty much all the arguments -- even the terminology -- used by the Bush administration defending its torture policies were pioneered by the Gestapo and prosecuted by the US as war crimes in 1948.

Also see How Did Soviet-Style Torture Become ‘Interrogation’?

Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner] ... I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause... for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.

— George Washington, charge to the Northern Expeditionary Force, Sept. 14, 1775.