Perhaps as shocking as reports that more than 100 people have died, nearly a quarter of them in homicides, in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan was the lack of outrage over this news. While Congress has been busy trying to save a single life and questioning baseball players about steroid use, no one has called for an investigation of the ongoing treatment of prisoners at the hands of the American military. Someone should.

When news of the prison abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq began to leak out, U.S. defense officials said such behavior was an aberration. Hundreds of photos and subsequent investigations showed this was not the case. Now, with the disclosure that the number of detainee deaths is far higher than the military previously reported, officials are again downplaying the severity. If Congress learned its lessons from Abu Ghraib, it will not take the military’s word this time.

By compiling data from several government agencies, the Associated Press determined that at least 108 people have died in U.S. custody. Worse, military officials said earlier this week that at least 26 prisoners were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 in what they believe are cases of “criminal homicide.” In addition, 11 prisoner deaths are classified as justifiable homicides and should not be prosecuted, according to Army officials. These include killings while U.S. soldiers quelled prison riots in Iraq.

Only one of the homicide deaths occurred at Abu Ghraib, indicating that prisoner mistreatment was more widespread than believed.

Even human rights groups who have feared that abuse was worse and more widespread than previously acknowledged expressed surprise at the number of homicides. “The number to me is quite astounding,” James Ross, senior legal adviser for Human Rights Watch, told The New York Times. “This just reflects an overall failure to take seriously the abuses that have occurred.”

The number should be shocking to all Americans. If the United State is intent on spreading freedom and democracy around the world, as President Bush has repeatedly said, its ability to do so is jeopardized by such cases of abuse and killing. That is why Congress must determine the full extent of the problems and, if necessary, mandate further actions to ensure that they are ended.

As the Bush administration has observed, a stateless enemy such as al-Qaida changes how wars are fought and prisoners detained. It doesn’t, however, erase the need to treat prisoners humanely and in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and other international agreements, as U.S. courts have found.

The U.S. public and the world at large need to know that such abuses have stopped. The alternative is to breed new generations of terrorists and new reasons to mistreat Americans who are captured.

Neither outcome should be acceptable.