Evidence is provided that the combination of (1) basic military recruitment and training strategies, (2) general authorizations for increased aggression and violence after 9/11, (3) specific authorizations for more aggressive interrogations, and (4) coercive pressures, protections, and the use of dehumanization at Abu Ghraib led otherwise normal military personnel to abuse and torture detainees without typical moral restraint. In 2003, at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, members of the United States military tortured detainees. Previous research indicates that the vast majority of those who carry out violence to serve a system are ordinary people. Their aggressive behavior is seen as not rooted in their dispositions, but the product of systematic and situational factors. This social psychological explanation for the torture at Abu Ghraib is supported by growing evidence of widespread United States military crimes throughout Iraq. This paper suggests that the United States military transformed ordinary soldiers into the cruel and ruthless guards at Abu Ghraib and utilizes past research on organized aggression and violence to explain this transformation. References