'None of Us Were Like This Before': Why hasn’t the U.S. military done a better job of addressing torture by our soldiers?

During the summer, the Best Defense is in
re-runs. Here are some favorites that ran in late 2012 and in 2013. This item originally
ran on January 2, 2013.

That was the question that kept on coming back to me as I
read Joshua Phillips' None of Us Were Like
This Before. It is not a perfect book but it is an
important one.

Yes, there are ethical and moral reasons for conducting a
comprehensive review of instances of torture of Iraqis, Afghans and others by
American soldiers over the last 10 years.

But there also are practical reasons:

1. The damage torture does to those who inflict it. (Two of the
soldiers in the unit Phillips examines killed themselves after coming home.)

2. The damage torture does to our war efforts-both in the host
populations, and in world opinion.

3. The effect on the current force.

The questions I would like to see addressed include:

--Who tortured?

--Why?

--Who stopped torture?

--What were the characteristics of units that indulged in
torture? And of those that didn't?

--How can we better train soldiers to deal with this?

--Are there continuing effects on the force that need to be
addressed?

One final note: Phillips writes that, "I rarely met a
detainee who had received an apology, or any acknowledgement at all, for the
harsh treatment he had endured during U.S. captivity."