That Old Double-Standard Thing

Human Rights Watch has released a 59-page report detailing human rights abuses carried out by US troops in Afghanistan. The BBC is covering the story. They charge that prisoners are held without any legal basis or process, and that torture techniques have been commonly used in interrogations. I'm inclined to give the military some latitude as they're dealing with para-military sorts of organizations where prisoners are somewhere between criminals and prisoners of war. But the constant and steady stream of human rights criticism of US actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay clearly undermine the strong moral and ideological overtones of the administration's policy positions, if not with US audiences, certainly to the rest of the world.