2005-01-12 The Torture Myth

2005-01-12 Washington Post Anne Applebaum \torture\US-Iraq War\military opinions http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2302-2005Jan11.html The Torture Myth &ldquo;Worse, you'll have the other side effects of torture. It "endangers our soldiers on the battlefield by encouraging reciprocity." It does "damage to our country's image" and undermines our credibility in Iraq. That, in the long run, outweighs any theoretical benefit. Herrington's confidential Pentagon report, which he won't discuss but which was leaked to The Post a month ago, goes farther. In that document, he warned that members of an elite military and CIA task force were abusing detainees in Iraq, that their activities could be "making gratuitous enemies" and that prisoner abuse "is counterproductive to the Coalition's efforts to win the cooperation of the Iraqi citizenry." Far from rescuing Americans, in other words, the use of "special methods" might help explain why the war is going so badly.&rdquo; Includes quotes from US military officers (retired and not) supporting this thesis.   