Abusing the term "abuse"

Michelle is keeping track of the many stories of abuse torture being committed by US troops, starting soon after the March 2003 invasion and continuing well past the Abu Ghraib revelations. She notes that the press continues to refer to torture as "abuse," I guess so Americans can pretend to believe that we're so much better than Saddam, or the other brutal dictators we support currently and haven't overthrown...yet. (Mubarek, the Saudi Royals, Musharref, Karimov, etc.) I don't really blame the troops--throughout history, people placed in impossible situations have tended to turn psycho. The fault lies with the criminals in Washington who sent them there on completely false pretexts.