Double Standards on Abu Ghraib

The media coverage of the violations of American law against Iraqi prisoners is in grave danger of setting a dangerous double standard for America and the Arab world. The administration must be very careful in explaining how we feel and what we will do. Otherwise our enemies will use our own words as an excuse to exploit this double standard.

To be clear, a very small number of Americans did a terrible thing. And because we live under the rule of law, and we take protecting the constitution seriously, the accused will be investigated and, where guilty, punished.

The incidents themselves are to be condemned.

The process of exposing wrongdoing; investigating the charges; having a fair and honest trial of the accused where there is a presumption of innocence until guilt is proven; and then punishing the guilty, is something we as Americans, should be proud of, and unequivocal about.

Explaining our anger at these misdeeds and our determination to punish the wrongdoers is appropriate. Appearing overly contrite or overly apologetic, however, will be a big mistake.

Not surprisingly, the anti-American left in our own country and in Europe-with its selective memory, remembering forever any American mistake while forgetting every anti-American and anti-human atrocity by others-is already on radio and television exploiting this as an opportunity to condemn America.

The pan-Arab media, with its selective outrage, honors and gives prominence to terrorists and barbaric mobs. The smallest American error is given banner headlines, but is, in contrast, excoriated. It is suicidal to reinforce this double standard.

One needs to point out that the pan-Arab media said nothing when the Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad destroyed Hama and killed more than 30,000 of his own innocent people, or when Saddam Hussein used poison gas on Iraqis and created 300,000 anonymous graves.

Nothing negative was said by the pan-Arab media when Americans were burned, mutilated and dragged through the streets of Fallujah, or when two Palestinian gunmen ambushed a pregnant woman last Sunday in her station-wagon and at point blank range methodically killed her four children ages two to 11, killed the eight-month-old baby she was carrying, and then killed her.

It is worth remembering that Eason Jordan, a CNN executive, wrote an article admitting that his network had deliberately covered-up and ignored Saddam's atrocities to retain access to Baghdad-a policy of caution which, of course, is not reflected in their current coverage of charges against America.

One American newspaper, with a half page dedicated to the allegations of brutality in Iraq, referred to the Sunday killings of a mother and her five children as “violence marred the Sunday Likud election.” No outrage, no shock, no horror, just another day of viciousness and brutality by our enemies.

We should firmly state our commitment to our values and denounce any American acts which violate those values. But while we publicly uncover and explicitly demonstrate our commitment to punish the guilty for their crimes under our rule of law, we should not play into any double standard where America is allowed to be condemned by anyone who accepts Arab viciousness, terrorism, mutilation and barbarism as normal behavior.

With equal firmness we should demand of the Arab governments and the Arab media their condemnation of barbarism, brutality and terrorism in their own communities.

Finally, we should angrily reject anyone who would smear the 200,000-plus courageous decent men and women who have risked-and are risking daily-their lives for a free Iraq, and for a safe America. Any effort by the anti-American left or the Arab media to generalize the acts of a few into an attack on America, or on America's armed forces, should be repudiated and condemned.

Mr. Gingrich, former speaker of the House, is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.