No individual of the UNITED STATES MILITARY has been convicted of "getting more Americans killed". Great byline for NPR hate Americans at any cost. Wonderful logic. If only we had never gone there. I personally met a physician from Iraq in Europe in 2001 whose family had been tortured, raped, and the remains were scattered in the street in front of his house. Subsequently, both of his sons were conscripted into the same vehicles where their mothers and sisters heads were. Leashes and panties indeed.
Denying the detrimental effects to America's mission in Iraq caused by these soldiers doesn't make it any less true. When these amateurs abuse prisoners it makes them more likely to rejoin the insurgency when they are released. Do you remember the hundreds of prisoners being released? Abused prisoners also become hardened against exploitation and are less likely to give up useful information. If extra pressure is needed to get info out of prisoners that is done by experts, not the not ready for primetime players.