Iraq: The Scandal's Growing Stain

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Nevertheless, the scandal has made it exceedingly difficult for the U.S. to build support for its faltering project in Iraq by pointing to good intentions. Bush has always seemed his most impassioned when he railed against Saddam's "torture chambers" and "rape rooms." As other rationales for invasion--like Iraq's alleged store of weapons of mass destruction--evaporated, the purpose of human liberation had remained. Even last week Bush was telling an audience in Michigan, "Because we acted, the torture rooms are closed." The newest inhuman prison scenes struck at the very heart of his claim that the U.S. was in Iraq to promote freedom and liberty. "This is our greatest strength," says Republican Representative Christopher Shays, "and we've blown it." For many Iraqis, no amount of U.S. generosity or contrition will ever erase the taste of humiliation conveyed by the photographs, especially given the symbolic importance of Abu Ghraib. It was Saddam's torture chamber, and now it's ours. --Reported by Timothy J. Burger, James Carney, Sally B. Donnelly, Michael Duffy, Elaine Shannon, Viveca Novak, Douglas Waller, Michael Weisskopf and Adam Zagorin/Washington; Mark Thompson/Doha; Brian Bennett, Paul Quinn-Judge, Simon Robinson and Vivienne Walt/Baghdad; Helen Gibson/London; Simon Crittle/New York; and Scott MacLeod/Cairo