Who ever said the US was "the only offender"? On the other hand there's some good advice about this kind of thing in St Matthew: "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother�s eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

I'm sure that most Americans do deplore this kind of thing, but that can go along with denying that it happens until the evidence is too overwhelming. The photos of a few of the things that happened in Abu Ghraib achieved that - but nobody appears to have been fool enough to pass out photos of these other activities.

There is a ritual sequence of denial when evidence of of atrocities come to light. Sometimes it doesn't go through all the stages, because it gets kicked into touch and the media circus moves on. (Remember the wedding party in Iraq that was massacred? Or the one in Afghanistan before?)

The first stage is that it is denied that anything at all happened - it's all lies and fabrication.

The second stage, something did happen, but the whole thing has been distorted and exaggerate.

The third stage is to admit that the atrocity occurred, but place the blame entirely on low ranking individuals.

The fourth stage is to blame maverick rogue elements in command positions for acting in defiance of the rules.

The final stage is to admit it all happened, but by now it's a long time ago, and nothing like that could happen again because the system has been changed and the people have been shifted.

It only reaches the final stage when people dig their heels in and demand justice and the facts, and have the power to make that stick. "Bloody Sunday" is one case where that did happen, but it's a pretty rare instance.