There are moments that throw the nature of America's enemies into the sharpest possible relief. One such moment came this week, as the Army revealed that it had identified the remains of two US soldiers taken captive in Iraq. Pfc. Byron Fouty, 19, and Queens-born Sgt. Alex Jimenez, 25, were captured last May after heavy fighting in Iraq's then-explosive Sunni Triangle. The body of a third captured GI, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., was found not long afterward - but Jimenez and Fouty's families held out hope for their return. Until now. It's the smallest of comforts that the country may now never know what, precisely, the pair endured in captivity. Captured Americans in Iraq have been subject to all means of torture - including public beheading - in the furtherance of militants' sick propaganda aims. Such brutality turned Iraqis against al Qaeda en masse - as soon as American resolve gave them the chance. It also gives lie to the tired cliché that America somehow loses its "moral standing" by, say, keeping terrorists locked up at Guantanamo Bay.