Cruelty is Such a Weapon

The Navy's former top lawyer cites 4 examples of the futility of cruelty he witnessed during his tenure:

ABU GHRAIB AND GITMO ARE KILLING US
Some flag-ranked officers maintain that the top two killers of US troops are the very symbols that were supposed to Shock and Awe Iraqis, and the world, into cowering submission for all eternity. The Torture Memos issued by the Office of Legal Counsel gave permission to let loose all Hell on "enemy combatants," figments of our cellf-imprisoned, self-terrorized imaginations, many of whom are completely innocent of malicious intent against us. Whose idea is it, that all we have to do is retaliate with overwhelming force, and the world will fall at our feet and then stay there for all eternity?

In other words, Mr. Bush: the very sword by which you intended to Shock and Awe the Iraqis, and the world, into cowering submission, cuts both ways. In my layman's opinion, you should be tried for negligent homicide on the principle of command responsibility.

ALLIES WON'T PLAY--OR EVEN TRAIN--WITH US NO MORE
Some allies have refused to play war with us, or even train to play, if there's the possibility that detainees will fall into our torturing hands. This includes senior NATO officials walking out on Americans rather than risk complicity in our torturing ways.

CRUELTY IS SUCH A WEAPON, IT DESTROYS ALL WHO WOULD WIELD IT
I completely agree with him on this point. The only way to dance with the Devil, without getting screwed in the end, is very simple: don't do it.

But notice the frame in which Mr. Mora places his crucial warning: "In this war on terror, the United States is fighting for its values, and cruelty is such a weapon [emphasis original]." Keep the war, change the method, is that what I'm hearing? Isn't the sword of war itself also such a weapon?