The Pentagon has published a disturbing report on the attitudes of US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report indicated that fewer than half the soldiers and only 38 percent of Marines believe noncombatants should be treated with respect. Some 40 percent also think that in order to extract information, torture is legitimate, particularly if used to save the lives of comrades. It is precisely because the results are so negative that Washington deserves credit for allowing them to be made public. The bitter truth about any war is that stressed and frightened troops often find it hard to balance normal decent behavior with the urgent anxieties and needs of the moment.

Nonetheless, the Pentagon report is to be condemned, not for what it says but for what it does not say. US Army psychologists who were involved in producing the document were primarily concerned with the effect of combat tensions on the morale, and thus the effectiveness, of America’s fighting men. They focused on their impact on the mental health of American soldiers.

What the psychologists chose to ignore is the significant contribution of ignorance to the attitudes and behavior of US servicemen. With precious few exceptions, Americans do not understand the religion, culture or subtle concerns of the ancient land which they invaded. In-country induction courses are at best rudimentary. Fresh soldiers now arriving in Iraq know that they are being ordered to fight a war that is deeply unpopular at home. They have never understood why the Iraqis did not welcome them as liberators and bringers of democracy. They are angry at this perceived ingratitude. They certainly no longer care about Bush’s “Mission.” The most important personal mission now for virtually every GI is to survive and get home in one piece.

Ignorance breeds fear and fear breeds the sort of violence that has resulted in the regular gunning down of innocents. American soldiers are not monsters. But as happened in Vietnam, the circumstances of this unwinnable Iraqi war are spawning monstrous behavior. In Southeast Asia, this was assisted by the dehumanizing of the locals. They came to be known as “gooks.” It was easier to shoot and bombard “gooks” than fellow human beings with the same hopes and fears as their own friends and family back in the US. Exactly the same thing, the same dehumanization now seems to be happening once again in Iraq.

Yet if the American forces in Iraq are guilty of a massive lack of understanding of the people whose country they occupy, they are merely a pale reflection of their commander in chief, President George W. Bush. He clearly had no time for the facts nor the complex realities of the Middle East. Instead, Bush used lies to attack an Iraq supposedly bristling with WMD and packed with Al-Qaeda terrorists. He bungled the occupation and unleashed the very terror he came to destroy. He still seems unaware why things went wrong. If he does not know, then why should we expect the US troops to try to guarantee his already small place in history?