Publishing these pictures is necessary. However it is also necessary to tell people that we have betrayed our country's history and standards. We were always the country that was generous and horrible even to our enemies. We were the ones who made friends instead of enemies. That has been our protection in the world for 200 years. When and if Iraq gets its act together they can demand damages and reparations from us for invading a country without weapons to defend themselves, much as was demanded of germany after WWI and led to their bankruptcy and degradation that led to WWII. Setting a standard of invading any country that insults is dangerous if any country ever feels strong enough to conquer us.

I feel instead of wailing like lost little babies in the wake of 9/11 we should have laughed it off and rebuilt saying "these criminals are little boys committing tantrums". Instead we have wasted lives and resources to the breaking point and showed all terrorists how easy it is to hurt the great United States.

Britain fought terrorists for decades and finally had to negotiate an agreement. Israel has been fighting terrorists since 1948 and still hasn't learned to make an agreement that will allow them to live in peace. Fighting terrorists is not a virtue, but an exercise in stupidity.

Some day our descendants will curse the names of the people who led us into this but they will die fat and happy with all the money they have "earned" from letting out war contracts. Why do we let people make money off of our loss of face in the world?

Thank you for being brave enough to publish this photos. I am a suburban mom caught up in the everyday life of just raising my family. As a faithful subscriber, I was suprised to hear about Salon on NPR. After hearing why there was a news story about my favorite website, I felt proud to have my money supporting Salon.

The unchristian and abhorrent crimes against humanity at Abu Ghraib need to be denounced, loudly, by the American people.

As a mother, I shudder thinking of the mothers whose children were tortured in Abu Ghraib. As an American, I am angry at my government sanctioning this horror. Action against our leaders must take place. From the president down, justice needs to prevail.

I will contine to be a premium subscriber. Thank you Salon.

There is a significant difference between the Danish cartoons and the torture at Abu Ghraib. As someone pointed out, the United States, neither its government nor its people, had anything to do with the Danish cartoons. We however have had everything to do with the torture at Abu Ghraib. One is not equivalent to the other. Apparently that's too difficult a concept for some of you to understand. The entire Muslim world is not tuned into Salon.com. I suspect few are. A great many Americans however are and that's the point. As Americans you should be appalled at the behavior of your government for if not outright mandating torture at least giving it the old wink and nod. You should cry out at the level to which YOUR government has sunk in pursuit of its ends in your name. How does torture make us better than the enemy? What unaccountable damage has been done to the reputation and standing of the United States among the nations of the world? This just makes us bullies because torture has been shown to be ineffective in intelligence gathering. That Salon decided to publish these pictures is irrelvant to Muslims because they've already seen them. The minute these pictures were put out by the Australian media, they were all over the Middle Eastern world. By publishing these pictures, Salon is doing its job as a member of the free press in a republic. It's informing the citizens about the behavior of their own government in the hopes that you will act like an informed member of society and do what you can to correct the government. In a republic, that's your duty. Salon has little if any way to influence how the Danes behave.

Thos of you who are accusing Salon of hypocrisy for publishing the Abu Ghraib photos and not publishing the Mohammad cartoons are comparing apples with oranges.

The Abu Ghraib photos depict real toture and suffering at the hands of U.S. personnel.

The Muhammad cartoons are gratuitously offensive cartoons insulting an entire religion. Why disseminate them? Their original intent was not a demonstration of "freedom of speech", it was deliberately insulting, inflammatory, and designed to provide fodder for Muslim extremists. And provide fodder, they did...

The Abu Ghraib photos are a national shame. Those horrible acts were committed in our name. These photos NEED to be published so that people realize and remember that Americans can never again engage in these shameful practices, lest we lose our soul as a people. The rest of the world needs to know that most Americans are revolted by torture and other mistreatments, lest we, as a people, be confused with the sadists and lunatics who ordered, aided and abetted, and committed those gross abuses.