Torture works ... or does it?
There is a major debate about the efficacy of torture as a means of gathering information. Some argue that the person tortured will tell his interrogators whatever he thinks they want to hear just to stop the pain. Others say that it brings real and useful intelligence in a timely fashion. In the middle are those who say that "enhanced interrogation" produced intelligence can be useful but must be treated with great care in separating the wheat from the chaff. The Algerian War, particularly the Battle of Algiers, proves conclusively, to me at least, that torture can be tactically successful.
But it was the use of torture that cost the French their legitimacy at home and internationally. That, alone was the most critical factor in their losing the war. For all its tactical utility, torture lead directly to strategic failure. That, I think, is the lesson that must be taught throughout our military and civilian agencies. Nothing has hurt our war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan so much as Abu Ghraib, the perception of mistratment of prisoners at Guantanamo, and the allegations of torture in secret CIA prisons. Whether the allegations are true or false - truth and falsity vary among these different situations - they have cost us dearly in the battles of the information war.
Reaction to Battlefield Ethics
It is interesting to do a web search and see how this story is reported by the various news outlets --with their headlines and emphasis:
Long tours in Iraq may be minefield for mental healthLos Angeles Times
Mental Health Survey Shows Troops Need More Time at HomeU.S. News & World Report
10% of US soldiers in Iraq reported mistreating civiliansThe Muslim News, UK
Many troops in Iraq lack ethics, US findsInternational Herald Tribune
Study: Anxiety, depression, acute stress in combat troopsCNN.com
Pentagon studies ethical dilemmas faced in IraqCNN International
Many US soldiers endorse tortureWashington Times
“Most US soldiers won’t report civilian killings, torture”Aljazeera.com
DOD survey finds ethical struggle in warStars and Stripes
Article Similarities (and Ethical Standards) ?
Uboat,
Exactly. Right up to the extremely disgusting (full of Sierra) end where the link for General Sir Michael Rose states
Quote:
General Sir Michael Rose, who commanded UN forces in Bosnia, urged the U.S. and its allies to "admit defeat" and stop fighting "a hopeless war" in Iraq, according to the BBC's Newsnight program.
Sir Michael also said it was time for foreign troops to leave Iraq and go back home.
"It is the soldiers who have been telling me from the frontline that the war they have been fighting is a hopeless war, that they cannot possibly win it and the sooner we start talking politics and not military solutions, the sooner they will come home and their lives will be preserved."
Asked if that meant admitting defeat, the general replied: "Of course we have to admit defeat. The British admitted defeat in North America and the catastrophes that were predicted at the time never happened.”
"The catastrophes that were predicted after Vietnam never happened. The same thing will occur after we leave Iraq," he added.
It is a medical issue here
Wide Latitude....No Longitude?
I would agree with the previous post that a COIN mentality would generate a much different data set given the cultural exchange that is occuring. I doubt there will be any follow up/longitudinal studies, however it would behoove some enterprising staffer of General P. to conduct this survey specifically in units that have some proven COIN time under their belts - a couple hundred randomly assigned, identical surveys, with manila envelopes that could be sealed and put in a collection box anonymously should do the trick nicely to show a distinct pattern, worthy of further pursuit. If my hunch as a civilian is correct, that there is some friction between traditionalists and COIN, this could be a nice feather in the cap, or ammo in the pouch perhaps, for the COIN side of things.
US Soldiers captured and ethics
I'd like to see how the ethics debate deals with this issue. AlQeada in Iraq says they have 3 US Soldiers. Is there doubt in anyones mind reading here of the fate these youngmen face? What do you think the reaction of their fellow soldiers will be?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070513/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
The fact that US and other 'civilized' militaries play by rules and that insurgents/guerillas/bandits or what ever you call them do not is the basis for all of the debate on ethics.
So long as captured uniformed troops are paraded on TV, beheaded on camera, tortured in the most sadistic ways there will be an ethics issue. Try controlling the vengeance desire of your men when their best friend was just treated worse than a cow in the slaughter house. Further their can be no surrender at any time, a US serviceman or woman cannot under any circumstances surrender. The last serviceman captured and returned alive was the SF Pilot in Somalia back in the Blackhawk Down episode. And that only because he was captured by a 'business' oriented individual.
-T