That is exactly the case. I think the point you're missing is that some sense of proportion needs to be maintained. The abuses at Abu Ghraib simply aren't that big a deal. Local troops misbehaved, investigations were launched, and the military justice process was working. The ensuing media spectacle has harshly skewed the perception of the war, due to the unusually sexual undertones of the abuse photos.
Is it weird? Shocking? Deplorable? Sure. But lets have some sense of balance on how limited and how minor these abuses really are. Some people honestly believe we are as bad as Saddam because of this obscenely biased reporting.
It's not that I think that we're worse than Saddam. Saddam was obviously worse and everyone from us, to the Arabs, to the liberals knows and understands that. It's just these goddamn apologists who try to use what Saddam did to minimize what was done at Abu Gharib: "We might have tortured prisoners, but what Saddam did was WAYYYY worse". What's worse is that these moral idiots are supposedly on my side, which makes me feel like an idiot for associating with them.