Major Matthew Alexander: 'We Owe It To Our Troops To Protect Them - By Not Conducting Torture'

“The American Public has a Right to Know That They Do Not Have to Choose Between Torture and Terror”
By Scott Horton

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"The number-one reason foreign fighters gave for coming to Iraq to fight is the torture and abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. The majority of suicide bombings are carried out by foreign fighters who volunteered and came to Iraq with this motivation. Consequently it is clear that at least hundreds but more likely thousands of American lives (not to count Iraqi civilian deaths) are linked directly to the policy decision to introduce the torture and abuse of prisoners as accepted tactics.

Americans have died from terrorist attacks since 9/11; those Americans just happen to be American soldiers. This is not simply my view – it is widely held among senior officers in the U.S. military today. Alberto Mora, who served as General Counsel of the Navy under Donald Rumsfeld, testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee in June 2008 that “U.S. flag-rank officers maintain that the first and second identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq–as judged by their effectiveness in recruiting insurgent fighters into combat–are, respectively the symbols of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo.” We owe it to our troops to protect them from terrorist attacks by not conducting torture and we owe it to our forefathers to uphold the American principles that they passed down to us,"

- Matthew Alexander, a soldier who, unlike countless shock-jock radio hosts, actually interrogated Qaeda suspects in Iraq.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004036
via:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004036