That's the typical Conservative dodge: They're pricks, so if we're not we're unrealistic and naive pansies who presumably, get what we deserve because we're too cowardly to do it to them first.

Abu Ghraib has nothing to do with any of this. That was a rogue operation carried out by ignorant and undisciplined thugs, I blame no one but the punks involved. I'm talking about the legal procedures and justifications that guided "renditions" and "enhanced interrogation techniques". Those were traceable all the way up to the White House, and they often violated existing and long-standing CIA and DOD protocols.

I don't need to be lectured on how there is evil in the world, but I also know it is very good tactically to not be brutal simply for the sake of being brutal. From a purely practical point of view, it rarely works anyway, and it is rarely carried out with the clinical detachment that guarantees it is done for valid intelligence and military reasons, as opposed to plain ordinary sadism, or simply not knowing what else to do, or worse, passing on the moral responsibility altogether; "Deliver the prisoner to Col. Trang for interrogation, soldier. He understands these people better than we do."

I'm perfectly ready to torture an enemy if I know it will save the lives of my comrades, but I also believe that it rarely is that simple a choice, or that easy a decision, and that it is usually a case of looking for an excuse to inflict pain by hiding under altruistic and patriotic motives. I've yet to see evidence of even one American life saved by the torture of a prisoner.

Still, I can understand the actions in the field of scared, tired men under desperate stress. This is very different from the actions of sleek, freshly-showered fat slugs in air-conditioned Washington offices devising elaborate and intricate legal cover to justify their long distance brutality.

However, I can agree with you that whatever crimes we may have committed in our wars, none rose to the level of the Nazi Holocaust. I suppose that is something we can be proud of: we never got quite that low. Still, our excuses sound very similar to theirs.

War is intrinsically painful, every non-instantaneous death is pure agony, and every wound is as painful as the suffering of the tortured. I don't fantasize a world where everybody plays nice, but neither do I hope for a world where I have all the excuse I need to derive pleasure from inflicting pain. That is the very definition of barbarism.