BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: The Pentagon has released the findings of a survey of what soldiers and Marines in Iraq think is right and wrong. The report says more than a third of the troops approved of torture in certain situations. Most would not turn in a buddy who mistreated Iraqi civilians, and only around 40 percent said Iraqi noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect.

Nancy Sherman is a scholar of military ethics at Georgetown University, where she is a Distinguished University Professor. She has also taught ethics at the U.S. Naval Academy. Her latest book is STOIC WARRIORS. Welcome.

Dr. NANCY SHERMAN (Distinguished University Professor, Georgetown University and Author, STOIC WARRIORS): Thank you so much, Bob.

ABERNETHY: What comes through to you from those numbers, those findings?

Dr. SHERMAN: This war is very hard on our soldiers, and they're in a double bind. There are long, protracted deployments -- battle time, combat time -- and they're being asked to be police at the same time they're war fighters, to put themselves at risk, to put their buddies at risk, to take huge sacrifices for a population they sometimes think is betraying them and that might sabotage them any moment. So that double bind of extra sacrifice and risk for a peace or victory that looks so foreign to them, where they can't really trust the locals they're trying to protect -- that's hard, and that's rage. It gives -- we forget that soldiers need to feel, to rev it up in order to do what they have to do. But revving it up can lead to impulsive behavior, seeking out an enemy where sometimes they can't find the enemy. They go for the nearest target, and the nearest target may be a noncombatant. It is unjust conduct, but it spills out in war, and commanders need to try to control it, but it's hard with these conditions.

ABERNETHY: Hard and terribly important to try to control it, because we don't want to be seen as the enemy of those we're trying to help.

Dr. SHERMAN: No. I mean, many commanders think the moral identity of a soldier is at stake here -- that we take the high road. And that certainly was a point that Petraeus, General Petraeus, has recently issued to the troops. But it is hard to take the moral high road when you feel you're being betrayed, sometimes betrayed by the locals you're trying to help and sometimes just betrayed because you're not sure what the rules of engagement are at the moment: Am I a policeman or am I a soldier? A policeman restrains force and takes greater sacrifices. A soldier can get out there and use more force.