On Moral Imperatives

Is there such a thing as a moral imperative in the United States? I’m not sure that there is. It is considered morally wrong to kill another human being, but at the same time we train people to kill in military organizations and thank them for their service later. It seems to me that killing people is much like killing animals, just at a higher level, and not killing animals is only a moral imperative to specific groups. Killing animals isn’t considered morally wrong unless it’s done too close to home. Most people, me included, will eat a dead animal. Some people (not me this time) think it is morally wrong to kill and eat certain animals while others can be killed and eaten, and some of them can be killed without even eating them. My point isn’t that I disagree with this; my point is that moral imperatives are never really imperatives. Even putatively black and white concepts like ‘thou shalt not kill’ have layers of gray shading.