US: There is a perception among Americans that the US has lost the moral high ground and the consequences have yet to be estimated, writes Conor O'Clery, North America Editor
"The six morons who lost the war!" That was how one Pentagon official characterised the soldiers charged with abusing Iraqi prisoners and the explosive impact of the ugly pictures broadcast throughout America and the Arab world.
Senior officers at the Pentagon have been reported expressing fury over the international disgrace brought down on the US armed forces.
But fingers are being pointed at military intelligence and the US Defence Department is under a deepening black cloud over its role and its handling of the scandal. Americans trying to absorb the shock of seeing their country portrayed as abusers rather than defenders of human rights say this was not how it was meant to be.
When weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq, the White House stressed that its invasion had at least rid the Iraqis of a cruel dictator. The need to end the brutal prison regime of Saddam Hussein was one of the reasons cited by Mr Bush for confronting Iraq, when he addressed the United Nations in September 2002.
Now there is a perception among Americans that the US has lost the moral high ground and the consequences have yet to be estimated. The scenes of male and female American, presumably Christian, soldiers mocking naked Muslim prisoners is fast corroding not just the nation's image abroad but belief among Americans in the justice of the war and the righteousness of the cause for which US soldiers are dying.
The claim by President George Bush that the US has brought a new set of standards to the Iraqi people now rings hollow to many commentators.
In testimony to Congress last week, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz numbered among the "positive" aspects of the war the fact that the US had shut down Saddam Hussein's torture chambers. For this he was ridiculed on the Jon Stewart's popular late night Comedy Central show.
Senior members of the Bush administration have struggled to find an explanation to fit with their oft-repeated claims that America represented a higher standard.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld condemned the abuse as not just "totally unacceptable", but "un-American". Secretary of State Colin Powell said it was "totally out of character" for American soldiers to act in this way. On Capitol Hill furious Congress members directed their anger against the civilian leadership of the Pentagon.
"We must have public hearings with the Secretary of Defence testifying," said Republican senator John McCain. His party colleague Senator John Warner, chairman of the armed services committee, accused the Pentagon of not being forthcoming about "as serious a problem of breakdown of discipline as I have ever observed".
He referred to a briefing Mr Rumsfeld had given legislators on Wednesday when he had not mentioned the storm about the burst over the pictures, though the defence department knew that CBS was about to broadcast them. Leading Democratic Senator Tom Daschle demanded to know why President Bush was not informed earlier of a report that American soldiers had subjected detainees to blatant and sadistic abuse at Abu Ghraib, and why Mr Rumsfeld and joint chiefs of staff chairman Gen Richard Myers have not yet read the two-month old report - even after it had been published in New Yorker magazine.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that Mr Bush did not see the pictures until they were made public, and only learned of the classified Pentagon report through media reports.
A debate has now begun in America on whether the soldiers were following orders, the outcome of which could decide the careers of senior Pentagon officials. One cable news channel found that about 50 per cent of viewers polled said they believed they were, and that the blame lay higher up in the Pentagon.
A lawyer for one of the soldiers charged, Mr Guy Womack, indicated that this would be the heart of the defence case. "It was being controlled and devised by the military intelligence community and other governmental agencies, including the CIA," he said.
The anger on Capitol Hill has been compounded by the possibility that the images could cost more American lives.
Questions are also being asked about the use of civilian contractors to carry out interrogations. Two contractors, CACI International in Virginia and Titan in California, have provided interrogators in Baghdad who are exempted from Iraqi and military law. Most of all, however, there is a feeling that after the enormous set backs in Iraq in recent weeks, a turning point has been reached that could translate into a popular demand to bring the troops home.
Don Imus, host of a popular NBC morning radio show, listened yesterday to an account of worse things done by American soldiers yet to be revealed. "We've got to get them out of there," he said.