Sadly, U.S. soldiers behaved this way in Vietnam.
It doesn't surprise me that these stories are surfacing but it's so so sad because the premise of the war in Iraq is already lacking credibility because no weaps of mass destruction were found. What's also very sad is that the people doing the actual torture were following orders of higher ups who are now denying everything. Like I'm so *sure* Dub-yah did not know this was happening! Brother, puh-leaze.
Part of the problem is war itself. Part of the problem is the way soldiers are acculturated into the army through discipline and back breaking training to find out where their breaking points are.