Justine Sharrock's new book, TORTURED: How Our Cowardly Leaders Abused Prisoners, American Soldiers, and Everything we’re Fighting For; (Wiley / June 2010; ISBN: 978-0-470-45403-9; Cloth / $25.95) reveals a huge chasm between what has made headlines and what actually happened. She traveled around the country, talking to the young, low-ranking soldiers who guarded that watched our prisoners, documenting what it feels like to torture someone and discovering how many residents of small town America think we should have done a lot more torture.

TORTURED goes behind the scenes of America’s torture program through the personal stories of four American soldiers who were on the frontlines of the “war on terror,” including the Abu Ghraib whistleblower. They reveal how their orders came from the top with assurances that those orders were legal and how their experiences left them emotionally scarred and suffering a profound sense of betrayal by the very government for which they fought.  An ongoing story, the Department of Justice may still launch an investigation into torture under Bush as the author argues must be done.

If reading TORTURED doesn’t make you angry, nothing America does to tarnish its reputation as a beacon of fairness and freedom ever will.