EDITORIAL FACING OUR FAILURES UNDOING THE INJUSTICES OF ABU GHRAIB IS KEY TO WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR.

IS there a double standard in the way Americans react to the competing images of atrocities that continually make their way back from Iraq?

That's what some of the war's supporters say, citing widespread outrage over abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, compared with the relatively muted public reaction after Iraqi insurgents killed, hanged and burned American contractors in Fallujah.

And they're right. There is a double standard. We Americans expect more of our fellow citizens, as well we should.

Ours is, after all, the world's oldest democracy and lone superpower. It's a nation that prides itself on its freedoms, its respect for civil rights and its good intentions.

That's why it's a sign of the country's strength, not its weakness, that after examining photos of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, congressional leaders of both parties spoke out against them. That our government has actively worked to ferret out the wrongdoers - as well as investigate their superiors' possible culpability - shows that we are, despite our grave shortcomings, still committed to living up to America's lofty ideals.

By extension, Americans' preoccupation - some would call it self- flagellation - over this scandal is a healthy exercise. A regular examination of conscience is a prerequisite of a moral life, for individuals and for nations alike, both during times of peace and times of war.

And, contrary to the suggestion of some war opponents that Abu Ghraib shows we're really no different from our enemies, it's our effort to do what is right and undo what is wrong that gives us the moral authority to wage the war on terror.

After all, when far worse abuses took place in Abu Ghraib under Saddam Hussein, the torturers weren't punished, they were promoted. Under his repressive regime, censorship kept the media from subjecting such heinous images to public scrutiny.

Americans have looked with rightful disgust at terrorists' unconscionable beheading of Nicholas Berg earlier this week. But the barbarity of Berg's murder in no way mitigates our own abuses. Instead, it makes all the more clear our need to demonstrate to the world that this is not a war between equal offenders. Our enemies may tolerate savagery among their own, but we won't.

If America is ever going to persuade the Arab world to embrace freedom and democracy - and reject terror - we must offer a clear alternative. Merely noting that our crimes are less severe than our enemies' won't cut it.

Instead, we must demonstrate that ours is a nation committed to justice, even when that means punishing our own countrymen or rebuking our own leaders. It means showing that we take our ideals so seriously that we're unafraid to be held accountable when we fall short of them.

Yes, we obsess over our failings, because we strive not to repeat them.

That's not so much a double standard, but a higher one.