How can this happen in a civilized world?

Some American guards in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq have brought shame to our country, to our valiant troops fighting in Iraq, to their own families and to we Americans.

They enjoyed abusing the Iraqi prisoners, and were so proud of their actions that they felt the need to be photographed doing it.

Those photos showed us acts that were cruel, sadistic and extremely humiliating and abased those Americans to the same level of our enemies. In the same prison, during the era of Saddam Hussein, a lot of torture and killings were conducted. We called those actions barbaric. What can we call those shameful acts conducted now by our own?

Those abuses have been decried by other countries, the same ones from which we had expected some support in our involvement in Iraq.

Now, our people, prisoners of the Iraqis, are in jeopardy and let us hope they will not become innocent victims because of those pictures.

Thanks to the actions of a few, our country is in turmoil, our enemies hate us even more, and the other nations are wondering how things like this can happen in our civilized world.

Sylvana Maakad

Arlington