I have no idea if this man’s words will be commented on by thousands or will be lost in the sea of media. But they are important.

First they remind us of the importance of moral limits on the treatment of captives. It doesn’t simply protect the captured; it protects the men and women of the military from the sadism of their superiors.

Second, his words remind us of the importance of moral leadership. This soldier, Michael Fair, admits that he did not avail himself of the rules that did exist. He is right to be angry at himself for that. In his own chance to take moral leadership he fell short. But he did not create the context in which torturing prisoners was rewarded and moral restraint chastised. Ultimately, our president did.

More than any other single person, George W. Bush is responsible for creating a culture in which torture became embraced. When challenged on it, he fought for the right to do it. And to a large extent a cowardly Congress and a morally indifferent populace let him. In so doing they became part of the corruption. But the responsibility still comes back to him.

Up until today I have been reluctant to suggest that George W. Bush be impeached. Part of the reluctance has been practical politics. Part of it has been the identity of the vice president. We might really be worse off with Dick Cheney. Exchanging a lesser evil for a greater evil is not something one should risk lightly. But part of the reluctance has been a sort of moral cowardice of my own, of not following through on the logic of my own observations.

My reluctance has been wrong. When a president creates a culture of lawlessness in the treatment of captives within the military, the law enforcement community, and the intelligence community, he has done more than commit a crime himself. He has entangled thousands of people in that crime directly.

He has also placed the rest of us at risk. Perhaps George Bush thinks that such immorality can be targeted; that the corruption created by the use of torture can be limited. But the longer such actions go on, the more entrenched they become, and the more widely they will be used.

The strenuous action of some heroic people, including I am sure other people in Fair’s position who responded differently, has limited the damage. The failure of Bush’s leadership in the Iraq War has limited it some more. But damage has still been done: to our country, our honor, to the soldiers placed in such circumstances and, most of all, to who knows how many captives.

President Bush should be impeached, convicted, and removed from office.