When the Abu Ghraib pictures came out, it wasn't "the world" that learned about the torture. It was the chattering classes in the U.S. The tortured knew, and they had told their fellow Iraqis on the outside. Iraqis knew.

In other parts of the world, there were many, many people who assumed that the U.S. was torturing without having it proven to them. For a start, that's what armies usually get around to doing in a war. And it's not like the U.S. has been pure in this regard during its history--especially when it could get its surrogates (Pinochet, the Shah, Saddam and the rest) to do its dirty work.

The question is, as always, what are we going to do about it? Up to now, the answer has been, "Not much."

Good point Paddy, I hope that for once we are going to do something about it....