I don't see that this issue has anything to do with democracy or the moral justifications for war. The humiliation of prisoners of war by displaying them publicly goes back centuries. It is at once a display of the power and might of the conqueror and the abject powerlessness of the vanquished.

Both sides in the Iraq war displayed prisoners to rally their supporters and improve the morale of their forces. Both sides have vilified the other for committing that self-same act. Iraq is about the naked use of military power to achieve political and economic goals .... by both sides.

And if you think it is ugly now, just wait until the American selected Iraqi leaders take over this summer.