The legacy of torture in the "War on Terror," told through the story of one tank battalion
Joshua E. S. Phillips is based in New York City and has reported from Asia and the Middle East. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Newsweek, Salon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among other publications. His radio features have been broadcast on NPR and the BBC. In 2009, Phillips received the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the Newspaper Guild's Heywood Broun Award of Substantial Distinction for his American Radio Works documentary What Killed Sergeant Gray.
The stories contained in this book reveal how brave American
service members tried to stop torture and abuse-often at the
expense of their careers and their lives. Their sacrifice and the
losses that they incurred are absorbed by all of us as a
nation.
*Daniel Ellsberg*
This is an important book showing the damage abuse does to the
torturers as well as to their victims ... Phillips's message is
that we most need the rules banning torture when we most want to
break them.
*Independent*
A serious, comprehensive effort to examine how torture and abuse,
once embarked upon, damage the torturer and abuser as well as the
tortured and abused.
*Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State
Colin Powell*
A deeply personal story of a generation of American soldiers
plunged into conflict after September 11. Joshua Phillips tells
these brave Americans' stories with compassion and vivid
detail.
*Senator John F. Kerry*
Joshua Phillips brings much needed close reporting to the question
of American torture. He reveals much about the interaction of
'lower down' and 'higher up' behavior, always including permission
or encouragement from above. The book also suggests the
psychological toll on those who torture, and is an important
contribution to American reckoning with a dark moment in our
history.
*Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir*
Joshua Phillips's incredible work in documenting the experience of
soldiers who detained and interrogated detainees reflects the huge
dilemma and consequences of their actions. His book is about
accountability where senior leaders in the military and in the
highest level of government failed to account for their actions,
failed to protect soldiers who expected clear instructions, and
failed the nation in preventing torture and abuse of the enemy.
This led to Abu Ghraib-an epic tragedy in American history.
*Major General Antonio Taguba, author of the Taguba Report*
A shocking read about a hidden chapter of the US involvement in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
*NPR*
Basing his work on extensive interviews, [Phillips] details how
ordinary American troops participated in the torture of enemy
soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
*San Francisco Chronicle*
A masterwork of narrative nonfiction.
*Guernica*
Phillips shows that the recourse to blaming a 'few bad apples'
should be recognised as a disgraceful, face-saving fiction.
*London Review of Books*
A tour de force of investigative journalism.
*Belfast Telegraph*
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*
Those who authorized torture and defend it don't want to talk about
this. They took honorable, patriotic young soldiers and convinced
them to sacrifice the very principles that they had signed up to
defend. That paradox is what Phillips investigates and brings to
light. And he does it with the utmost respect for the soldiers.
*Huffington Post*
Phillips' book remains the first and best heartbreaking tale not
only of the abuses taking place within our military prisons, but
also the negative, long term and in many cases fatal psychological
affects it is having on both interrogating soldiers and
interrogated enemy prisoners of war ... [An] outstanding book [and]
a necessary read for all.
*Veterans for Common Sense*
None of Us Were Like This Before is a model of conscientious
reporting on a volatile subject-the torture of Iraqi prisoners by
American soldiers. His ethical and compassionate approach is an act
of citizenship.
*Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams and Crossing
Open Ground*
There are many things in this book that are fascinating and
generally unknown. One is that these soldiers were afraid to report
what they had seen and done ... but without reporting it they
couldn't receive any medical help for their trauma.
*Darius Rejali, author of Torture and Democracy*
The causes and consequences of systematic abuse and torture are all
explored by Joshua Phillips through a careful but searing
narrative.
*Counterfire*
A fascinating yet distressing account of how the use of torture and
abusive techniques on prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan affected
the lives of American soldiers who found themselves caught up in
it. Far from neglecting the suffering of the victims, Phillips,
through meticulous research, also brings home the full horror of
the war crimes inflicted upon the citizens of the occupied
nations.
*Gulf News*
Joshua Phillips' book shows that America's leaders were wrong.
*National*
None of Us Were Like This Before ... is an important [book].
*Foreign Policy*
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