As more shocking details &045; and photos &045; come out about the humiliation and torture of Iraqi prisoners by their

American captors, more people are looking around for a scapegoat to hang.

While the buck always stops at the top, we find it difficult to believe that wiser heads which hold top positions would have allowed such treatment of prisoners &045; had they known it was going on &045; call it innocence or blindness to the realities of war.

As the investigation continues, should we learn that those wise leaders turned their heads away and said nothing, they should indeed be held accountable. But if the opposite is true, the buck should stop at the appropriate level.

What bothers us more than finding the top-level person to blame is the shame those few soldiers brought to our nation.

Here we sit, often arrogant in our belief we are the best country in the world only to learn there are some willing to stoop to a low level for what purpose? To get prisoners to talk? That’s just doesn’t justify sacrificing our reputation as a superpower. We certainly should have a higher standard than to practice the tactics of a dictator we put out of his own country.

As a leader among nations, we are responsible to set an example of how people should be treated and we failed our mission in this instance.

How horrified must the Iraqi people be to know that the oppressive treatment from which they were liberated is also practiced by the people they thought were saviors.