AUSTIN BAY HAS SENSIBLE THOUGHTS ABOUT WHAT TO DO regarding the prisoner-abuse scandal:

In the long run, the public demonstration of American justice –the arc of investigation, trial and punishment — will provide a lesson in democracy. It goes without saying that Saddam’s jailers would never confront a judge for similar outrages. The process will underscore the difference between the democratic rule of law and a dictator’s rule by whim.

However, the long run isn’t here, but a hundred digital photos are, on front pages and a thousand websites, color shots of detainees being hurt and humiliated, camerawork with the smarminess of pornography.

The photos are an anti-American propagandist’s centerfold, and provide America-haters with a new Exhibit A to support their perpetual charges of American hypocrisy and decadence. They stir legitimate anger at a difficult time of transition in Iraq. They damage American military and political efforts.

But there is an odd silver-lining. America’s open society includes its military. U.S. military actions are subject to legal review. The American public’s revulsion is also a healthy indicator. Unlike Baathists who danced for Al Jazeera television after the murder and mutilation of four Americans in Fallujah, the American reaction is regret. The American message is, “We don’t rejoice, we don’t condone or excuse, we investigate and prosecute.”

Immediate candor, supported by verifiable change in procedures and then followed by quick compensation of victims — that should be U.S. policy for addressing the crimes at Abu Ghraib.

Candor in the digital age means more than press conferences. Candor in the digital age means press tours of Abu Ghraib. Candor entails a comparison of current conditions there with those in the October to December 2003 time frame when the mistreatment occurred. Full candor — here’s where the bitter truth begins to seed a better future — also means a comparison of current conditions with those under Saddam’s regime.

Indeed.