The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers amounts to nothing less than a human rights disaster.

Public outcries for the court martialing and detainment of those who directly participated in the abhorrent acts leads one to believe that the common perception is that the individuals should be held accountable.

Simply confronting the seven men and women directly involved is simply not enough. There needs to be more action taken.

We live in a world where high-profile incidents generally give birth to high-profile actions, and yet in this instance the matter is concluded with seven military charges and an apology.

Have the politics of war forced the U.S. constitutional focus on human rights to decline?

The repercussions of an incident such as this have the power to yield greater actions and policies which could prompt the interpreters of the Geneva Conventions to catch up on decades of negligence regarding coercion techniques.

Instead, the lives and rights of the abused detainees are fading into a patriarchal clarification of the rules of interrogation.

This should not be the case.

There must be a greater consequence than compelling Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to sweat while delivering his regrets and apologies on behalf of all of those involved.

Those who committed the act must be confronted for it, but it is everyone's responsibility to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.

We owe it to the detainees, their families and ourselves to use our actions to re-establish the United States as a nation which stands for peace, justice and fundamental human rights.

Who is to blame is no longer the question. Simply firing the coach because the team is failing will no longer stand.

Let the bureaucratic paperwork be lost among the actions of those who demand peace and justice for all.