None of this is to excuse what happened at Abu Ghraib. It has stained our high moral purpose. It is no defense to say that the offenders were just a benighted few or were seeking valuable intelligence, or even that torture is prevalent throughout the Arab world. We hold ourselves to a different standard.

That's it in a nutshell. I couldn't have said it better.

The abuse at Abu Ghraib lacks the axial component that allow events like VietNam and the Highway of Death to be spun in either direction.

But once again the American public has kept perspective better than the news media. In two polls, a Washington Post /ABC and a CNN/ USA Today/ Gallup poll, roughly 70 percent reject any move to oust Rumsfeld...

Give us a little more credit than that.

While our "perspective" has been knocked out of wack by Abu Ghraib, we still have enough sense to wade through the politcal bullshit.