President Bush has long relied on advisers to deliver relevant world news to him. In light of circumstances surrounding recently-released pictures of American soldiers humiliating and torturing Iraqi prisoners, it’s now more obvious than ever before how dangerous this president’s lack of curiosity is to preserving what is left of America’s long-standing claim to legitimacy as a leader among nations.

Any student who regularly picks up The Spectator on the way to class understands the curiosity that drives one to read the newspaper. Reading the news from varied sources offers a variety of viewpoints and possibilities for what the truth is today and where the world may be headed tomorrow. The curiosity that causes students to read The Spectator is sorely missed when the president walks through a hotel lobby without picking up a newspaper.

President Bush gave an interview last fall to FOX-TV anchor Brit Hume. The interview covered many topics, among them how the president gets his news. President Bush told Hume that every morning his Chief of Staff Andrew Card and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice go over important matters with him.

The most striking moment in the interview came when Bush revealed he rarely reads the newspaper. The president explained, “I appreciate people’s opinions, but I’m more interested in news. And the best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what’s happening in the world.”

President Bush relied on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to deliver relevant, objective news. But the president’s almost-sole reliance on advisers for information allowed Rumsfeld to withhold relevant news and did not offer the president an objective view of what news he did offer.

When CBS’s “60 Minutes II” aired photos of abuse inside Abu Ghraib prison, it was the first time the president knew of their existence. Neither he nor the secretary of defense had seen the photos, although Rumsfeld knew his top general was working to prevent CBS from airing them.

The administration’s ignorance of the severity of the situation is despite the fact the secretary of defense knew of the abuses taking place. Rumsfeld ordered an investigation into the activities at Abu Ghraib prison and other detention facilities, including Guantanomo Bay, in December 2003. The report was completed in February. The secretary of defense; General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and President Bush have not yet bothered to read it.

The report is more damning than the pictures of abuse seen thus far. Included in it are stories of humiliation and abuse caused by American soldiers. Regular practices included making available only enough food for a small fraction of the prisoners. When a whistle would blow, prisoners would race to be first, lest they go hungry. Naturally, fighting occurred. When it did, the soldiers unleashed guard dogs.

When NBC’s Matt Lauer asked Rumsfeld if he had read the report the secretary had ordered, he offered that he hadn’t read it because it amounted to ” … a mountain of paper and investigative material.”

If an Army private had responded similarly to a superior, his punishment would not be slow in coming. But because Rumsfeld is so close to the White House, he can get away with this inattentiveness. Details, it seems, are routinely regarded as unimportant.

Stories of abuse, combined with pictures of Iraqis being humiliated at the hands of gloating American soldiers, only put more American soldiers in harm’s way. Yet, the secretary of defense never bothered to brief the president about it. As a result, a potentially widespread problem in command structure was ignored while the humiliation and torture continued.

There is a malignant lack of curiosity about the wider world in the White House that starts with the president. As a consequence, there’s a critical lack of knowledge and understanding. Connecting this dot of incuriosity with the dot that is the mess in Iraq today does not require a long line.

The proper solution to this mess begins with the president walking a straight line back to Texas on Jan. 20. He got us into this mess. Based on his track record, we cannot risk America’s role in the world by entrusting him to clean things up.