[jyl]

And half of them are dead . . .

As you say, the US doesn't have an indefinite amount of time to prepare for this. Whatever happened, happened 2-3 months ago, it's remarkable that its been kept off the front burner for that long.

Now that the matter is breaking onto the front page, the military have got to act quickly. Complete the investigation, publicly announce the findings and conclusions, deliver punishment and reparations if appropriate. And the Administration has got to publicly tell Americans what happened and what is being done.

The disaster of Abu Ghraib was made far worse by the slow and torturous way that the facts came out. The Guantanamo Bay mess has been made worse by the attempt to keep the facts secret.