It doesn't surprise me that psychologists were used to help come up with ways to torture people, or that the psychologists failed to learn the lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment, which they likely learned about when they were studying to become psychologists.

After WWII the world chose not to punish the ground level Nazis who perpetrated the day to day murder and mayhem. I think the reasoning has been perverted. In post-Nazi Germany there were so many people that were guilty of so many horrific things (besides the day to day turning of a blind eye that we as everyday Americans may also be guilty of) that a realistic accounting of crimes might not have been possible in a war ravaged country. We've taken that to mean that low level torturers shouldn't be held to account. It was a compromise to put a bloody chapter of history behind us. Just because studies have shown that under certain circumstances many people will turn into monsters doesn't mean that we should forgive them when they do. How are they morally any different than someone who grows up in the culture of an inner-city gang? The Stanford experiment scares us because 'normal' people became abnormal so quickly. It can be scary to think, 'maybe I would have done the same thing.' It's precisely because maybe we would have done the same thing that there needs to be consequences. If we leave this loophole in justice open we are only inviting moral hazard.

It should also be noted that after WWII, it was the victors, the people, at least ostensibly representing the victims, who granted amnesty. It's so much more convenient that we can forgive ourselves.

One important thing to note about the Stanford Prison Experiment is that, to this day, Philip Zimbardo is haunted by what happened and what he allowed during the experiment. He gave a great TED talk (and you can view it on their website) about how the experiment has affected him and how he credits his wife with helping him to see the truth about what he was doing to himself and the students involved.

SO, in essence, what your saying is "All people involved in war and the all who did nothing to stop it should be held accountable and punished"..That's pretty much all the world population...

Logic-101:

SO, in essence, what your saying is "All people involved in war and the all who did nothing to stop it should be held accountable and punished"..That's pretty much all the world population...

That's not what I'm saying at all. There are many levels between willfully turning a blind eye, casually turning a blind eye, not speaking up loudly enough, not doing anything to stop something and actually participating. There is also a huge difference between what is done on the battlefield with the other side shooting back and what is done to people who are prisoners. The objective of battle is to target the people who are shooting at you. There will often be times when innocent victims get in the way. You do the best you can to reduce this. There is something, unfortunately, in human nature, that tends to corrupt how we act when we are given complete control over another human being. Can you say with any kind of certainty that this torture wasn't just sadism run amok? There need to be penalties for this.

Aside from the morality issue there are practical issues. We talk about how torture will affect how our soldiers are treated when they are captured and how torture doesn't get people to tell the truth. We don't even get to what enemy soldiers will do to avoid being captured if they are convinced they will be tortured. When I used to watch old WWII documentaries I always wondered why the Japanese seemed so willing to fight to the death against overwhelming odds. The Japanese side of the argument was always quick to embrace the warriors code. The U.S. side of the argument was willing to accept this to, because it kept us from admitting that a lot of the time we weren't taking prisoners. Once the other side knows you're not taking prisoners they are pretty quick to fight to the death. Enemies who think they will get humane treatment if they surrender are more likely to surrender. Sure, some enemies will want to go out in the proverbial blaze of glory, but lets not give them even more incentive.