Reply #29: A key point:

[Democrafty]

Sorry, but some of the things that were said here make me angry because it is so easy to agitate big principles when you are safe behind a keyboard, but when you are on the ground, following orders that you believe are lawful, it is a different question.

I absolutely agree with this, and it's important to keep in mind. Not just as we debate, but because it raises really important questions about the way people are trained in the American military. If troops are being trained in a way that conflicts with the Geneva Convention, that has to be addressed. Even if nobody gets prosecuted, it has be addressed.

I think most citizens who care about this issue are less interested in punishing individuals than they are in finding out why those individuals thought it was okay - or maybe it was expected of them? "Who is responsible for torture?" may be too big a question to deal with in a legal way. But isolating the system that allowed and/or caused torture, and prosecuting the architects of that system, could be possible, and, I think, is necessary.