PETER COSGROVE: Yep. Ah...Abu Ghraib was a real, that was a low point, a low point. I think THE low point is the men and women who lost their lives in the Sea King tragedy. But a low point was the Abu Ghraib thing. I couldn't believe that...an element of the US armed forces would be involved in an improper way like that looking after detainees. I can understand that you don't...mollycoddle people who are detained for one reason or another. But that's light years away from maltreating them. And simply, as that emerged...it sent ripples...through all of the US armed forces, through the United States, through the whole alliance and understandably here in Australia. And...to that degree we were surprised, caught by surprise.
ANDREW DENTON: In war, is torture a legitimate...
PETER COSGROVE: No, absolutely not.
ANDREW DENTON: Never?
PETER COSGROVE: No, you don't descend to that level. You've lost if you maltreat people. Whatever we do, whatever we gain from people, we've got to do so in a way which leaves our morality, our integrity, intact.
