Granted, it's not civil, acceptable, palace etiquette or, more important, US military doctrine to urinate on battle-killed enemy fighters -- in this case, three dead Taliban in Afghanistan. But could we just move on? 

That'll be the day. Get set for Abu Ghraib 2, a national wallow in a wholly manufactured and inflated evil, the kind of masochistic frolic our extremely twisted elites, safe on their soundstages, find so extremely pleasurable. Get set for the exclusion of any and all context, either related to heat-of-battlefield conditions, battle fatigue, or Taliban depredations. We have met the enemy and he is us, again -- and thank God. Or is that thank Allah?

What is most distressing is watching the ISAF pr machinery crank up. The desecration of Taliban bodies -- as in already dead, according to ISAF's own orders and assorted United Nations-NATO-focus-group preferences -- is of immeasurably greater concern than even the murder of a 20-year-old Kentucky-born soldier while playing volleyball on a US-Afghan base in Afghanistan, shot in the head in cold blood last Sunday by an Afghan Army member -- Kill No. 43 by Afghan security forces inside the wire over the past two years.

Also distressing is the fact that this deadly pattern of Afghan assault against the very nations that shore up Hamid Karzai's crummy government doesn't get a rise out of the Afghan leader; this freak incident does.Years of all-too-faithful service and sacrifice by US and allied forces to end the jihad in Afghanistan count for nothing; years of restrictive ROEs designed to save Afghan lives at the expense of American and allied lives are disregarded; and forget about the billions of dollars spent by the West to to build an Afghaninstan of unimaginable grandiosity; Karzai has.

Rather than calm passions, Karzai arouses them: "The government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed by a video that shows American soldiers desecrating dead bodies of three Afghans. This act by American soldiers is simply inhuman and condemnable in the strongest possible terms. We expressly ask the US government to urgently investigate the video and apply the most severe punishment to anyone found guilty in this crime."

But don't mention the alarmingly frequent shootings by Afghan security forces of US and other infidel soldiers. Their wounds and deaths (not indignity after death) are simply not worth condemning, deploring or denouncing. Or even mentioning. These things are just what happens in war (COIN); what happens on the battlefield (volleyball court); what happens to men who break down in battle under stressful conditions (watching a volleyball game).

These four American service members, however. are dead meat; ISAF said so, in language that verges on hysterical: 

"ISAF Denounces Deplorable Act Portrayed in Video'

KABUL, Afghanistan (Jan. 12, 2012) -- A video recently posted on a public website appears to show U.S. military personnel committing an inappropriate act with enemy corpses. This disrespectful act is inexplicable and not in keeping with the high moral standards we expect of coalition forces.

ISAF strongly condemns the actions depicted in the video, which appear to have been conducted by a small group of U.S. individuals, who apparently are no longer serving in Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, this behavior dishonors the sacrifices and core values of every service member representing the fifty nations of the coalition.

Therefore, a United States Criminal Investigatory agency has launched an investigation. It will be thorough and any individuals with confirmed involvement will be held fully accountable.