Machine generated contents note: 1.Searching for Answers -- 2.The Story Begins in Afghanistan -- 3."We weren't in the CIA---we were soldiers" -- 4.Shock the Conscience -- 5.Rumors, Myths, and Ticking Bomb Stories -- 6.Crimes of Omission -- 7.Silent Suffering -- 8.Confronting Torture's Legacy -- 9.Homecoming.
Summary:
"This shattering book is a journey into the heart of American darkness. What Joshua Phillips makes shockingly clear is that the misbehavior of some of our best soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan came about because of a failure of military leadership and because political leaders lacked the courage to admit the word `torture'."---Richard Rodriguez, author of Brown: The Last Discovery of America -- Sergeant Adam Gray made it home from Iraq only to die in his barracks. For more than three years, reporter Joshua E.S. Phillips---with the support of Adam's mother and several of his Army buddies---investigated Adam's death. What Phillips uncovered was a story of American veterans psychologically scarred by the abuse they had meted out to Iraqi prisoners. -- How did US forces turn to torture? Phillips's narrative recounts the journey of a tank battalion---trained for conventional combat---as its focus switches to guerrilla war and prisoner detention. It tells of how a group of ordinary soldiers, ill trained for the responsibilities foisted upon them, descended into the degradation of abuse. The location is far from CIA prisons and Guantanamo, but the story captures the widespread use and nature of torture in the US armed forces. -- Based on firsthand reporting from the Middle East, as well as interviews with soldiers, their families and friends, military officials, and the victims of torture, None of Us Were Like This Before reveals how soldiers, senior officials, and the US public came to believe that torture was both effective and necessary. The book illustrates that the damaging legacy of torture is not only borne by the detainees, but also by American soldiers and the country to which they've returned. --Book Jacket.
