General Petraeus Warns Against Using Torture
    By Thomas E. Ricks
    The Washington Post

The top U.S. commander in Iraq admonished his troops regarding the results of an Army survey that found that many U.S military personnel there are willing to tolerate some torture of suspects and unwilling to report abuse by comrades.

    "This fight depends on securing the population, which must understand that we - not our enemies - occupy the moral high ground," Army Gen. David H. Petraeus wrote in an open letter dated May 10 and posted on a military Web site.

He rejected the argument that torture is sometimes needed to quickly obtain crucial information. "Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary," he stated.

Protecting Iraqi civilians rather than abusing them is a major part of Petraeus's offensive to improve security in Baghdad.