Peggy Noonan calls American abuse of Iraqi prisoners “disheartening” and “a humiliation for America,” and rightly so, but I disagree with some of her ponderings.

“It forces us to think that some Americans are capable of this,” she writes. “The scandal suggests to the world that there are a (small) number of U.S. troops who are capable of these actions, which is mortifying, and which gives rise to a defensive, ‘That is not who we are.’ As indeed it is not. The humiliators could hardly have more heavily humiliated their country.”

Is it really difficult to believe that a lot of people, American or coalition participants, could have given in to this sort of behavior? With pent-up anger, stressful conditions, and knowledge of how those Iraqi prisoners had behaved themselves, would not vengeance be in the hearts of many?

Peggy betrays her religious beliefs if she thinks Americans — even a “(small) number” — are, or should be, incapable of such actions. News from the crime wire and culture wars — yes, in America — are daily evidence of what men born in sin are capable of. The reason we are different is not because of the difference in the inherent nature of our people (that would be somewhat supremacist, wouldn’t it?), but because our founders recognized the nature of man and implemented the best system to corral it.

The culture of freedom and righteousness blossomed, but that still never changed original sin. For Biblical backup, see Jeremiah 17:9, Matthew 15:19, and Romans 3:9-12. Hence, the need for the events depicted in “The Passion of the Christ.”