By now most of the world is probably aware of the accusation that four US Marines urinated on corpses in what is apparently Afghanistan.\u00a0 One of the group videotaped the event for posterity.<\/p>\n
The event brought out a slew of condemnations<\/a> from all sides:<\/p>\n The reference to moral values is interesting; wasn’t the US military recently accused of inappropriately dictating morality?\u00a0 If you’ll recall, the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was routinely said to\u00a0wrongly impose “private religious and moral<\/a>” standards on members of the military.<\/p>\n It would seem most people agree — and rightly so — there is<\/em> a moral standard, though many would likely disagree upon the location from which it comes.<\/p>\n The strength of the immediate and near visceral response has demonstrated one thing, however:\u00a0 the assumed upright morality of the United States in general.\u00a0 Everyone <\/em>assumes America holds itself to an elevated moral standard; otherwise, such acts would not have been considered so “inconsistent” with American values.\u00a0 Everyone <\/em>believes that.\u00a0 Even the Taliban:<\/p>\n A Taliban spokesman called the video “barbaric.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Remember, that’s a representative of group that previously stoned Afghan citizens to death, cut off their limbs and heads, and staged public executions\u00a0with AK-47s.\u00a0 The point of the Taliban statement, of course, is to maximize the public relations hit the US will take in its supposed moral superiority.\u00a0 That the Taliban are guilty of far worse is irrelevant.<\/p>\n The Taliban even claimed its adversaries must be atheists to do something like this:<\/p>\n “And no religion that follows a holy text would accept such conduct. This inhuman act reveals their real face to the world,” Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said via text message Thursday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n