People say that Arabs have no right to be outraged over the torture in Abu Ghrayb prison because torture is commonplace in the Middle East. Now it is true: Arab governments and Israel (but not Cyprus, the only democracy in the Middle East) have a long pattern of killing of civilians and of torture of people. I have noticed that Arab governments have been largely silent (even the governments that are critical of US) over the abuse in Iraqi prison. They do not want to remind their own citizens of their own long record of torture, as if their people need reminders. But what is particularly jarring about US torture and abuse are: 1) that the US decided, having failed to find WMDs--although the search continues, to base its invasion of Iraq on an ostensible defense of human rights in that country; 2) that the US, unlike Arab governments which all but concede that they are torturers and killers, designates itself as "the beacon of freedom." The US now, NOW, wants to tear down the Abu Ghrayb prison as if that will be sufficient to erase Bush's shame. I say, keep it standing, as a monument to the victims tyranny, abuse, and human rights violations, and as a reminder that abuse can occur at the hands of indigenous and foreign tormentors. Iraqis know that first hand now.