None of Us Were Like This Before

None of Us Were Like This Before recounts the dark journey of a tank battalion as its focus switched from conventional military duties to guerilla warfare and prisoner detention. Author Joshua E. S. Phillips tells a story of ordinary soldiers, ill trained for the responsibilities foisted upon them, who descended into a cycle of degradation that led to the abuse of detainees. The book illustrates that the damaging legacy of torture is borne not only by the detainees, but also by American soldiers and the country to which they have returned.

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., 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., 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., 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., 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.

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.