The photos of U.S. troops sexually abusing Iraqi detainees have provoked world outrage and offered a glimpse into the military’s interrogation tactics.

From top to bottom, many of those still supporting the war were quick to defend and, in some cases, even support the abuse. General Tacuba’s report outlined the rape of at least one Iraqi woman by U.S .soldiers, troops sodomizing an Iraqi man with a chemical light and possibly a broom stick, threatening male detainees with rape, humiliating Iraqi men by forcing them into naked pyramids, forcing masturbation, humiliating and assaulting using dogs (seen as filthy animals in Iraqi culture) and even killing them.

Such acts constitute some of the worst things done by Americans to Arabs in a very long time. These methods are grotesque in American culture, but articulating the seriousness of these acts in Middle Eastern Muslim culture — where male dominance runs so much deeper than here — is simply not possible. The United States has become what it claimed to liberate the Iraqi people from.

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice dismissed the seriousness of the prisoner abuse, claiming the United States has moral authority in the Arab world. What? Few countries (if any) could possibly be viewed as worse violators of morality in the region after our long history of self-serving Middle East policy.

Let us not forget the CIA’s role in the 1953 overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected prime minister. The pro-U.S. dictator then employed routine torture of citizens and crushed civil liberties, which resulted in the regime’s overthrow during the Iranian revolution of 1979. And can we so quickly forget the United States funding Hussein and Bin Laden into the billions?

Rice claims moral authority. Who does she think she’s kidding? Senator James Inhofe, R-Okla. called the people outraged by the prison abuse just “humanitarian do-gooders” whose concern over rape and torture “outraged” him. Is this what she calls moral authority?

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh even defended those involved—people “having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You [ever] heard of need to blow some steam off?”

And yet our political “leadership” claims American moral authority? No wonder the situation in Iraq is so bad: Those who cling to supporting this war have been brainwashed by their own neo-con wet dream of conquering Iraq “no matter what.” Undeniably. There is no excuse for rape.

Critical thinkers have to question why these pictures — freely taken by US soldiers in mass quantities— were even possible to be taken. Why did troops feel comfortable stacking naked Iraqi men in open pyramids for amusement? How is it that such pictures were swapped like baseball cards for months before the leadership stepped in? Clearly, the leadership had permanently called in sick.

Where does the buck stop? Certainly not with President Bush, who only apologized under political pressure. Condoleezza Rice? No.

Donald Rumsfeld? Yeah, right. Bush has expressed supreme confidence in Rumsfeld even after the photos surfaced, despite the defense secretary’s inability to handle Iraq in any fashion.

The New Yorker recently published a lengthy, well-researched and damning column detailing Rumsfeld’s personal involvement in the secret Pentagon-created special-access program, which planned for abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.

This prisoner abuse is a microcosm of the military’s view of Iraq. The innocent men, women, and children killed by our careless gunfire and bombings are referred to as “collateral damage,” as if the loss of human life is just a corporate operating expense. Sanctity of life anyone?

Except in this case. The real, actual human beings being shot and burned alive in Iraq somehow aren’t seen as an expense by the occupation — despite the fact that the family members of the “collateral damage” often wind up fighting for the resistance.

Our abuse of power and needless killing of Iraqi citizens is now the chief motivation of the resistance. The pictures of 6-year-old orphaned amputees and innocent children with bombed-out bodies is enough to make one cry. Imagine being related to one of the victims. How would you feel about your daughter being shot in the face?

Iraqi hatred of Saddam Hussein has been redirected to the United States both for our actions and continued support of the occupation, which has taken over Saddam’s dirty work of ruling Iraq to protect personal interests. Although under different management, the product retains its bitter taste.

Expect the situation to spiral uncontrollably. Expect more orphaned children and more soldiers to die in the coming summer months of 120 degree days. Most of all expect more anti-Americanism in the region. But don’t expect any of those alleged weapons of mass destruction to be found — we will only find pain and suffering in Iraq.