US Iraq troops 'condone torture' (widespread = most don't)

BBC News ^ | Friday, 4 May 2007, 20:59 GMT 21:59 UK | Humphrey Hawksley

[james500]

A US survey of battlefield ethics among troops in Iraq has found widespread tolerance for torture in certain circumstances and problems with morale.

[snip]

More than a third believed that torture was acceptable if it helped save the life of a fellow soldier or if it helped get information about the insurgents.

About 10% of those surveyed said they had actually mistreated Iraqi civilians by hitting or kicking them, or had damaged their property when it was not necessary to do so.

[james500]

Why does BBC even bother with the body of the article? It tends to undercut the headline which is so much more fun to write anyway...

[Nathan Zachary]

What a load of garbage. This crap shouldn’t even be considered “news” worthy of posting.

[Bulldawg Fan]

Why would anyone expect any different from the Defeatist, cower under the bed media?

[Cinnamon]

at least they are not beheading innocent people in from of a camcorder and broadcasting it to the world.

[WTSand]

CBS radio is broadcasting this report hourly. They think all American fighting men belong in Leavenworth.

[Valin]

It’s the BBC. What did did expect? They make the NY Times look fair & balanced.

[facedown]

More than a third believed that torture was acceptable if it helped save the life of a fellow soldier...

Yup, me too.

...or if it helped get information about the insurgents.

Nice try liberals but thanks for playing.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Are we supposed to be disturbed that 1/3 support torture in certain circumstances or ONLY 1/3 support torture in certain circumstances?

[Rembrandt]

I’ve read polls done in the U.S. which repeatedly conclude that yellow teethed, nasty breath, UK reporters never report anything factual and, when they see something, they are not capable of reporting what actually happened. Why is that? Perhaps it has to do with the size of their country or perhaps the size of their personal equipment.

[DJ MacWoW]

It’s the BBC. What did did expect? They make the NY Times look fair & balanced.

There is a NY Times article on this. By Reuters. It stinks too. It's headline is : Not All Troops Would Report Abuse, Study Says

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

You seem to be at least as disingenuous as the BBC, picking the snippets which support your view. The article did have an anti-American troop slant, but not as far as you made it seem. Entire BBC articles can be posted, but it seems you merely picked out points which were bound to infuriate freepers (and there's a lot to be infuriated about the way the article was actually written).

---

The article:

---

By Humphrey Hawksley
BBC News, Baghdad

The survey recommended tours of duty should be shortened

A US survey of battlefield ethics among troops in Iraq has found widespread tolerance for torture in certain circumstances and problems with morale.

The survey, by an army mental health advisory team, sampled more than 1,700 soldiers and marines between August and October 2006.

It examined their views towards torture and the Iraqi civilian population.

A Pentagon official said the survey had looked under every rock and what was found was not always easy to look at.

The Pentagon survey found that less than half the troops in Iraq thought Iraqi civilians should be treated with dignity and respect.

More than a third believed that torture was acceptable if it helped save the life of a fellow soldier or if it helped get information about the insurgents.

About 10% of those surveyed said they had actually mistreated Iraqi civilians by hitting or kicking them, or had damaged their property when it was not necessary to do so.

Troops suffering from anxiety, depression or stress were more likely to engage in unethical behaviour, together with those who had had a colleague wounded or killed in their unit.

Shorten deployments

A key recommendation to emerge was to shorten the tours of duty.

Those deployed longer than six months, or who had been to Iraq several times, were more likely to suffer from mental health problems.

But presently thousands of extra troops are being sent to Iraq as part of an offensive to try to curb the insurgency by October.

Tours are being extended, and units that do go home are being allowed less time to recover before being sent back.

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It isn't even a long article.

[Levante]

Wonder if these same media bastards consider abortion torture for the baby (fetus)?

Nah, of course not. Yet these liberals are all for it.

[CBart95]

Why dignify the utterances of criminal, Euro-trash media scam artists who despise America?

They are anti-America agents for our enemy.

We will do well to note other media “cousins” who run with this story as it was concocted...each of them deserve our scorn and rejection as well.

[Sandreckoner]

I don’t see anyone here being “at least as disingenuous” as the BBC. The tag line claims “widespread tolerance for torture in certain circumstances” and “problems with morale.” If you’ve ever take a journalism class or three you recognize exactly what impression that line is _intended_ to give. They full-well understand what, so that they decided to write it so can only be taken as exemplifying their bias.

[Levante]

“CBS radio is broadcasting this report hourly. They think all American fighting men belong in Leavenworth.”

The See-BS scum belong in Leavenworth.

[james500]

“You seem to be at least as disingenuous as the BBC, picking the snippets which support your view.”

That’s how one usually makes an argument, by providing snippets that support that view. If you think I’ve omitted snippets that would support their claim that “US Iraq troops ‘condone torture’”, perhaps you can point them out to me.

[chessplayer]

HuffPo loves this and is having a field day about it. It`s deja-vu all over again. Vietnam vets were portrayed as drunken, drug addled, uneducated, baby killing psychopaths. Iraq and Afghan vets will be portrayed the same.