Many people currently complain that the news media refuses to move on from the Abu Ghraib story. They seem to believe the story should be reported for a short time and then...I don't know. Not be shown again? Do a positive spin and talk only about how justice will be served and America is the best ever? Skim right over how these problems were created? Leave everything to the current administration and trust things will work out all right?

I don't get it. It's only been a few days since the first photos were released. New ones came out recently. It's like watching the Wizard of Oz and seeing Toto draw back the curtain. "NOOOOOO! Look away! Stop looking at those pictures that makes the US look bad!"

Right now we have only seen part of the abuses. Because of the refusal or inability to release all the evidence, photos are appearing in drips and drabs on the news, giving this issue new legs. Arguments that the media is dragging it out ring false to me. I'm not going to bother with the "the liberal media™ is getting a woody socking it to the evil Republicans."

Another argument is that showing these pictures will weaken our resolve, make the job in Iraq harder, and cause anger against our troops. Well, yeah. But those few guards who committed these acts are to blame, not the media. The torturers were stupid enough to pose for pictures. They were the ones committing abuse. If the US news media ignored the story, the problems wouldn't magically solve themselves. The abuses would not be reversed, those who saw the pictures initially would not suddenly forget, and the pictures would still be seen, just not by the US news media: I'm sure the anti-US Internet sites are now as stuffed with those photos as a tick is full of blood.

"China/Cuba/al Queda/Iraq do worse and they don't get as much coverage!" Apparently they don't know the saying "dog bites man, it's not news. Man bites dog, it's news." The corollary to this saying is: "when Americans use dogs to bite prisoners, it's a news reporter feeding frenzy." The main purpose of a free press is to expose our flaws. Hard to do that when you want to bury your head in the sand and pretend bad stuff isn't happening.

Americans have been hearing rumors about US torturing and abusing prisoners ever since the Gitmo base first had people. But those were wacky conspiracy theories by freaky nut jobs with tinfoil hats. But now we know: in this case, Americans have tortured people. As Americans we should hold ourselves to a higher standard. Always. "We're not quite as bad as al Queda" is not something to be fucking proud of, it should go without saying that we are nothing like al Queda.

Often in 9/11 debates you hear the phrase/accusation "moral relativism." Moral relativism is now being used in this latest scandal: "we're not setting people on fire!", "we're not chopping off heads!", "they won't apologize or investigate or punish their own!" Those three statements are true. And totally irrelevant to the fact Americans should behave better than a bunch of terrorists and scum.

Some people think an investigation and a few trials and court-martials will remove this stain on our honor and reputation. But it will take years, maybe decades, before that happens.