The Taliban is urging the United Nations, the European Union, and the Red Cross to intervene to halt the execution of three Taliban fighters on death row. "We strongly request the U.N., the EU, the Red Cross and human rights groups to earnestly prevent this barbaric act," the Taliban said in a statement on their website, Reuters reported today.

Predictably, the United Nations and the European Union oppose the executions, "citing concern about the standards of judicial fairness."

One wonders if the irony is lost on the Taliban, the United Nations, and the European Union. The Taliban is guilty of some of the most atrocious crimes in recent history. One doesn't have to walk back very far to find such crimes.

For instance, yesterday two Taliban fighters poured acid on the faces of four schoolgirls in Kandahar. Their crime? Who knows. Some of the girls were wearing the full burkas. Perhaps because they went to school?

A week ago, Taliban fighters halted a bus in Kandahar and dragged all thirty passengers off. All of the passengers, including women and children, were murdered. Six were beheaded. The Taliban claim they were all soldiers.

Taliban military units are constantly fighting from populated areas and place civilians directly in the line of fire. The Taliban intentionally try to provoke NATO and Afghan forces into kill civilians. It works. Five days ago, a Taliban force intentionally intermingled with a wedding party in Kandahar. The Taliban continued fighting and prevented the civilians from leaving the battlefield. NATO forces called in an airstrike, which resulted in the death of 27 Taliban fighters and 36 civilians.

Incidents such as these occur on a near-daily basis, yet there is no international outcry. Nor does the Taliban refer to them as "barbaric acts."