Torture versus collateral damage; the bigger evil?

[davidbfpo]

In an article in Strife (from KIngs War Studies) a former US Army colonel asks questions that maybe fit here better than the partisan politics in the USA:

There are important questions about how the program may have affected the conduct of the wars, including:

• To what extent did the perceptions and justifications of the program, to include the actual and perceived use of torture, affect our soldiers and their mission?
• To what extent did senior leaders’ public justifications of the program affect broader policy and strategy options in the conduct of the wars?
• To what extent did perceptions and justifications of the program promote an ends-justify-the-means mentality within the military in Afghanistan and Iraq?
• To what extent did the perceptions and justifications foster a belief in the military that such practices were acceptable and could be used by them in combat?
• To what extent did ‘false positives’ or erroneous reports, perhaps made out of fear of torture, lead to military actions that cost lives (civilian and military) and created unnecessary enemies?
• To what extent did the actual and perceived use of torture compromise the military’s moral standing in the eyes of the people in Afghanistan and Iraq? In what ways did that affect the mission and its prospects of success?

Link:http://strifeblog.org/2014/12/11/did...merican-lives/

[OUTLAW 09]

In an article in Strife (from KIngs War Studies) a former US Army colonel asks questions that maybe fit here better than the partisan politics in the USA:[/LIST]
Link:http://strifeblog.org/2014/12/11/did...merican-lives/

Bluntly put---it killed any chance of a success in Iraq---the CIA program was only one part of a systemic intel problem throughout the entire military detainee and interrogation program in Iraq that "cost" the US in the long run the support of the Sunni population.

[Firn]

I just came across the latest global surveys by Pews. It is important to conserve a critical view, especially in some cases of some countries but it is still highly interesting stuff:



Despite all the reservations it is stark stuff to see where the US are on that chart and in which company...