This is one area in which Turse and I differ in approach. For him, all atrocity allegations are valid, and the goals of the claimant do not impinge on their reliability. I'm ore interested in the motivations and methods of allegations than the atrocities.

Turse's work also shows the ways in which the historical moment in which we live influence our work as historians. He was writing at a time during which Abu Ghraib became a public scandal and in which the American Left railed against wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.