Not that we didn’t know it all along, but at least it’s now on the record, demolishing the “few bad apples” nonsense the White House was hoping would save its neck.

A U.S. soldier expected to plead guilty to charges of abusing Iraqi prisoners told a German magazine he deeply regretted his actions but said the abuses were encouraged by military intelligence services….

Frederick, a prison official in civilian life, said he had received no special training in treating military prisoners and was encouraged by intelligence officers to break prisoners down for interrogation, by any means.

“The secret service set no limits at all. It was about concrete results and they weren’t interested how they were achieved,” he said, adding that many more people should be called to account for the abuses in Abu Ghraib.

“There are definitely more people responsible for what occurred in Abu Ghraib, and many of them have not been charged.”

We all now the scenario. The little people on the ground will be put in jail, and the General Sanchez’s and other higher-ups will receive a minor scolding. It’s the American Way, especially in an administration where, if you are loyal to the president, you can do just about anything and not be held to account. This was underscored to the point of parody right after Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate that Abu Ghraib occurred under his watch and he had to take responsibility. Instead of saying, “You’re fired,” bush reacted by saying he was doing “a fabulous job” and calling him “the greatest secretary of defence” the nation had ever seen.

Funny, how Abu Ghraib seems like such an old and distant story now. Just like all the stories about Iraq and Afghhanistan — we’ve reached our threshold, and we can’t be upset about them any more. We just suffered a true defeat in Najaf (disguised as a victory) and are now fighting extended battles in and around Fallujah and Baghdad, but it seems surreal and even boring. We just don’t want to hear about it. And the media, by focusing relentlessly on the stuff that really matters, like Kerry’s medals of 34 years ago, helps keep the horrors of our failed wars deep in the background.

Of course, the circus that’s about to open in NYC will push the war and its miseries even further off the front pages. 14,000 Iraqis have been killed so far, and nearly 1,000 US service people, and things today look worse than ever.