Article content

The men who tortured other men weren’t recognizable as men. They hid behind balaclavas and goggles while they forced their victims to stand naked against walls, or huddle naked inside coffins, or lie naked on top of other victims. The torturers were anonymous, their victims exposed.

But though the torturers appeared inhuman and acted in ways that seem inhuman, we don’t have the luxury of ignoring the fact they, like us, are human indeed. And so we’re each left with the question that echoes from the crevices of all manmade cruelties, big and small: How could they?

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Gormley: How they could torture Back to video

They did it for security, for revenge, for the sheer thrill of it: these three answers have orbited America’s torture report. None are totally incorrect. Nor are they easily compatible with each other or wholly complete on their own.

The torturers and their enablers provided the first answer themselves, anxious to excuse the inexcusable. By torturing a hundred bad guys, they said, thousands of good guys were kept safe.