If you haven’t seen them yet, here are some censored versions of the photos of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers. Unfortunately, these abuses cannot be discounted as the actions of a few idiots. Rather, the problem was systemic, as discovered by an internal Army report leaked to New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh (who else?).

The report, by Major Gen. Antonio Taguba, listed some of the wrongdoing:

Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee.

This pervasive torture at Abu Ghraib — the infamous chamber of horrors during the Hussein regime — was ordered by the military-intelligence forces in an attempt to extract better information about the anti-U.S. insurgency.

Until now, I thought that this war and this occupation, while well-intentioned was severely misguided. It was a noble but stupid attempt to make America more secure by attempting to socially re-engineer the Middle East. But now, now I am truly ashamed of what the U.S. government is doing in my name. It’s unclear how the practice of occupation — of, at this point let’s face it, oppression — can be separated from its intentions.

What else can I say? Damnit, damnit, damnit.