The main aim of torture is fear among those yet to be tortured or yet to be captured.

Fear is the main tool of Bush and his cronies. "You have nothing to fear but Bush himself"

Absolutely. The man is a deluded little despot in the mould of Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini.

Does he even believe his own rhetoric?

In a vertical and hierarchical organization which depends on wide-ranging information collection and analysis for apt decision-making, the greatest distortion is to introduce fear into the system.

True, although this depends on the aims of the organisation. Dysfunctional organisations exist to massage the egos of their leaders, not to deal with problems and opportunities in a reality-based way.

From this point of view introducing fear hasn't been a distortion but a necessity.

The goal of the Warrr on Trrrrr has been to give tinpot Bush the chance to feel important and preznitential and historic. And also to make steaming piles of money for the arms dealers.

Both of these goals thrive on madness and destruction. Unfortnately, they haven't, as yet, been failures.