If this is how we sell democracy, it's no wonder they're not buying.

I am disgusted, saddened, mortified, and embarrassed by the treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. On Tuesday, Senator Clinton had to cut short the Q&A portion of her speech to the ADL conference in order to attend an emergency closed-door committee hearing on the matter. She was clearly shaken and appalled by the emerging news. In stark contrast, Donald Rumsfeld appeared on the Today show yesterday and seemed arrogant, dismissive, and almost cavalier about the matter. He seemed simultaneously to be distancing himself from the abuses (though he admits he knew about them as early as January 13) and attempting to minimize the gravity of the situation.

It is a rare day when I agree with anything President Bush does, but his statement today criticizing Rumsfeld for hiding the information from him was necessary and appropriate. But it is insufficient. Tom Friedman's piece in today's New York Times is pretty close to exactly what I want to say about this subject. I have no doubt that the American troops in Iraq are angry, frustrated, and horrified at what is happening to their friends and compatriots at the hands of Iraqi rebels. The Fallujah massacres are disgusting and inexcusable and brutal. But we are the United States, and we must be better than them.

We must hold the moral high ground at every possible opportunity. We must show the Arab world and our European detractors that we will not, under any circumstances, descend to the level of our enemies. We must show the Iraqi people what it means to be a land of freedom and democracy, and just how different such a land is from Iraq under Saddam Hussein's reign of terror. If the debacle in Iraq is ever to lead to a society that is moving towards democracy, a system that will serve as a model for democratization across the Middle East, then we must lead by example and prove by our own deeds that it is not simply idle, idealistic talk when we speak of civil rights, human rights, and the rule of law.

As Friedman says, the President must fire Rumsfeld. Now, right now. And whatever policy or order or military culture has led to the abuses at Abu Ghraib must end. Now.