Newsweek was wrong to run an article that relied too heavily on an anonymous source who later changed his story. The magazine also should have been more aware of the reaction its reporting of the desecration of the Koran was likely to spark. How this story came to be printed and later recanted, especially after the magazine allowed two high-ranking Pentagon officials to review the story before it was published, should be fully investigated.

The condemnations of the magazine, however, should not turn attention away from the fact that abuse of prisoners and their possessions has been confirmed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nor does it negate the daily killing of Muslims by Muslims in Iraq.

Whether a Koran was desecrated or not, prisoners have been mistreated at the hands of their American captors. That is the larger story. Pictures confirm tortured and humiliated prisoners. They have not been retracted. While there were no widespread protests in the Muslim world after these events were reported, their severity should not be diminished.

Earlier this year, the Associated Press compiled data from several government agencies and determined that at least 108 people have died in U.S. custody. Military officials said in March that at least 26 prisoners were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 in what they believe are cases of “criminal homicide.”

Only one of the homicide deaths occurred at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, indicating that prisoner mistreatment was more widespread than believed. There are also reports of abuse at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where Newsweek erroneously reported that a Koran had been flushed down the toilet to encourage a prisoner to divulge information.

Perhaps the oddest thing about this string of events is that the supposed desecration of the Koran engendered more angry reaction than the killing of people, mainly by other Muslims. Fifteen people died in anti-American protests in Afghanistan. An apology from Newsweek and the retraction of its May 9 story do not diminish these deaths. At the same time, however, the tally of Iraqis killed in suicide bombings and executions topped 400 in the last month.

It is fair to blame a magazine that failed to confirm its story – with deadly consequences. But the blame doesn’t stop there.