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Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, who took responsibility for his part in the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, was sentenced this week to eight years in prison.

Harsh. But not too harsh for the man in charge of the night shift at the prison wing where the abuses occurred, and who participated in them. In dealing seriously with Frederick, the Army reinforces the foundation of U.S. military culture, strict adherence to the laws of war. Something is wrong, though, when soldiers low in the chain of command are held to that standard while those at the top are not.

The Schlesinger panel that investigated the Abu Ghraib scandal traced its germination to a decision by President Bush in February 2002 that the Geneva Conventions would not apply to al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners.

That decision allowed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to authorize harsh interrogation methods at Guantanamo. Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, commander at Guantanamo, took Rumsfeld's guidelines with him to Iraq in August 2003. And that September, the top commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, authorized interrogation techniques that violated Army standards under the Geneva Conventions.

The abuses at Abu Ghraib went even further. But they grew out of an officially sanctioned lawlessness that Bush justified by claiming a special need for information in the "war" on terror.

A painful irony is that, last month, Miller reported the military is getting 50 percent more high-quality tips from Iraqi prisoners since the scandal forced it to drop some coercive measures, and use incentives instead.

Bush's tough policy was illegal, immoral and ineffective. And accountability stops at the staff sergeant?