Desecrating the corpses of one’s enemies is sickening. The Iraqi Al-Qaeda did that to Americans in Fallujah in 2004. I don’t think anyone thought that was passably OK. That said, I would offer a few observations:
1. In the past, things like this, or worse, hacking them up and displaying them, was done, as the French say, “pour encourager les autres”, to have a hashpo’oh on others, i.e. to instill fear. As this was not used in that way, and as a Taliban will be more scared by an M1 Abrams tank or an F-16, it serves no practical purpose as well as being sickening.
2. At other times in history, such desecration had a religious undertone (e.g. Aztecs desecrating the corpses of Cortez’s soldiers during the battle for Tenochtitlan in 1521) and were part of an avodah zara ritual. Also sickening, but not what these soldiers were doing.
3. What I can not agree with is the cynical description of this action as “inhuman” by President Karzai of Afghanistan. Beheading aid workers and journalists is inhuman. throwing acid in the face of women who go to school is inhuman. Stoning women to death who were the VICTIMS of an oson is inhuman. This? This is wrong, very wrong, but altogether too human of these young desensitized soldiers to have done.