Thank goodness we have a responsible media that reports on the atrocities committed in Iraq by our American men and women in uniform!
Now the jihadists will be able to behead, torch, stone and rampage guilt free for several months.
(Warning: What you are about to read may be very upsetting)
A US sniper used the Holy Quran for target practice.
CNN leads the charge against the military:
A soldier used the Quran -- Islam's holy book -- for target practice, forcing the chief U.S. commander in Baghdad to issue a formal apology on Saturday.Was it really in the best interest of this country... or Iraq... or the Middle East... to report this incident?
Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, flanked by leaders from Radhwaniya in the western outskirts of Baghdad, apologized for the staff sergeant who was a sniper section leader assigned to the headquarters of the 64th Armored Regiment. He also read a letter of apology by the shooter.
It was the first time the incident -- which tested the relationship between U.S.-backed Sunni militiamen and the military -- was made public since it was discovered May 11.
"I come before you here seeking your forgiveness," Hammond said to tribal leaders and others at the apology ceremony. "In the most humble manner I look in your eyes today and I say please forgive me and my soldiers." Watch villagers protest the Quran incident »
Another military official kissed a Quran and presented it as "a humble gift" to the tribal leaders.
The soldier, whose name was not released, shot at a Quran on May 9, villagers said. The Quran used in the incident was discovered two days later, according to the military.
It looks like the US military handled the incident just fine.
Just what was CNN trying to accomplish by reporting on this?
Once again... It really makes you wonder which side they are on.
UPDATE: JWF notes the predictable reaction at Daily Kos:
Worse than Abu Ghraib
I wasn't one of those people like Teddy Kennedy who suffered a meltdown over Abu Ghraib.
But, the reaction to this is a bit of a stretch-- Even for a radical Leftist writing at the Daily Kos.
More... Reuters is having a hay day with the story.
"It looks like the US military handled the incident just fine."
ReplyDeleteWhy in the world should the US Army give out information that undermines it? Must be one of the dumbest moments of the war on terror (which does not lack such moments).
This certainly wasn't the smartest thing this soldier could do - shoot at a Koran in Iraq, but seeking forgiveness by tribal leaders and kissing the Koran is just plain, old sickening. Maybe the officials should have licked the feet of the tribal leaders to boot.
ReplyDeleteThe military should have just said the soldier was sorry and would be disciplined - for being so stupid, and that should be that. The grovelling is overboard, considering all the Americans have done for the Iraqi people. Everyone is always trying so hard not to make the Muslims mad and get a negative reaction - disgusting!
I'm sorry, but I have to wonder whose side that idjit soldier is on.
ReplyDeleteAll the Iraqi's are not the enemies here.
What joanne suggests is what happened.
And if that turns out to be the end of it, we dodged a bullet.
We really do need to learn to separate the extremist terrorists from the friendlies.
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ReplyDelete"No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies." - Dean Acheson
hmm, wonder if Bible's are used for target practice??
oh wait, Islam is a one way street..
how stupid are we??
i fear not as stupid as we're going
to be, take Eurabia for instance..
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ReplyDeletere: bg @ 4:28 PM..
clarifying enemies.. those who "quote" the Koran as an excuse to kill US troops/ infidels/ apostates..
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That was the stupidest thing any soldier could have done. Way to lose a counterinsurgency.
ReplyDelete++
ReplyDeleteWay to lose a counterinsurgency.
well if we're going to be THAT intimidated over something so stupid (after all the Koran is no less an inanimate object than the Bible, etc) perhaps we should just freakin' surrender!! gah!!
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First, unlike every other report of an "attrocity" against a Quran, this one actually happened. And... considering how trivial Abu Grabass really was, yeah... this is just as "bad".
ReplyDeleteBefore and after for 'Golden Mosque."
ReplyDeleteThey blew it up themselves, but we have to treat their "holy" crap with kid gloves. They are the destructive ones, and until we till them point blank, "you are liars" they will continue to lie!
(And note the choice of language, the mosque wasn't blown up (except in the fine print), but it "fell" as if Muslims didn't have a thing to do with it.)
As someone said in a comment on another blogg, the good guys (USA) should all carry the 'blessed' Koran with them when they are in Muslims countries, and make sure that all vehicles have several 'blessed' Korans inside. Then the 'blessed' Muslims would not do anything to damage the 'blessed' Koran, would they?
ReplyDeleteIf we criticize General Hammond for apologizing, they we're asserting that we--sitting here in all our noncombatant glory--know better than the men who won the counterinsurgency against al Qaeda and Iran.
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly not going to make that call.
These are people who kill at the drop of a hat. They kill their daughters for smiling at men. They've killed thousands of our troops because they thought we were there to steal their women. It's entirely possible that this could unravel everything we've done.
Yet American civilians are still bravely shouting "No compromise! Sickening! Tell to shove it!"
How immature and deliberately obtuse is that?
Some things make sense to do.
ReplyDeleteThis was not one of them.
And the cute idea won't work--there are pictures around of a Koran in the wreckage of a bomb-car.
Killing bad guys makes a lot of sense.
Desecrating things that people on our side label as holy does not.
It is that simple. Right. And wrong.
We are supposed to know the difference and to make decisions accordingly.
What conceivable good could have come from shooting at a Koran?
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ReplyDeleteTom W & Larry..
understood.. but why was/is such a BIG DEAL being made out of it?? an apology is one thing, but that's as far as it should go.. to say the act was intimidating enough to cost US to lose Iraq seems absurd.. and if that is the reality.. then like i said, we might as well surrender because someone would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater & i don't believe for one iota of a second that whoever did the sniping would be the one responsible..
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A US military commander KISSING the Qur'an?! For a non-Muslim, that is a serious thing -- and seriously wrong. Someone on this thread called it groveling, and I concur. It was unnecessary. When are we going to quit doing more for Muslims than we do for our own people in general, and for Christians in particular. Such blatant acts of dhimmitude only cause the Muslims to: a) disrespect us more; and to (b) demand more and more concessions from us.
ReplyDeleteI take it none of you would have a problem with a Muslim using the bible to wipe his arse, then?
ReplyDeleteReligious nutters are all the same, really. I'm willing to bet if a Muslim used the bible for target practice you'd be screaming for heads on platters. From what I can tell from reading you right wing nuthouses over the years, you're not all that different from the terrorists. Abu Ghraib didn't bother you (torture doesn't bother them either); you advocate for the wholesale slaughter of Muslims (they advocate for the wholesale slaughter of westerners). I mean, how are you different. I say the moderates of this world should stuff all of you idiots in a rocket and ship you off to the moon.
ReplyDeletedid he hit that little circle dead centre?
ReplyDeleteThese things are already being reported on by those in the region. I will admit, at one point I did think that reporting on incidents such as this re: our troops was dangerous to them and to morale as a country, though I disagreed with the war.
ReplyDeleteBut what of last night's 60 Minutes report by Scott Pelley? What of the Iraqis who helped our troops now being denied (or at least having their chances of) seeking asylum in the U.S.? This report did make the current administration look extremely bad, as well it should for what it is doing to these Iraqis who risked (and sometimes lost) their lives to help our soldiers. Now they are treated like garbage and hung out to dry.
What's your take on that sort of reporting, reporting on wrongs done by our government along with reporting on organizations (The List Project in this case) who are trying to change the policies and help these Iraqis? As Americans we can still make a difference as individuals and even form groups or chapters of existing groups to help and share our goodwill, and some of this is spurred on by reporting on policies that is extremely critical of these same policies. Call them "liberal", "anti-American", whatever you like, they still give everyday Americans the opportunity to write other blog posts stating that we do not support such actions.
As for the OP, if we really are on a war of "goodwill" and "democracy for the Iraqi people", then why shouldn't our media outlets report on a soldier who has anything but goodwill in his heart towards the religion of the many he's supposed to be defending? Heck, get this guy some copies of al Qaeda manifestos and videos to shoot at since even the aims of this war are supposed to be for the benefit of the people of Iraq, the majority of whom are (GASP!) Muslim.
Hey Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteYou haven't been paying attention for awhile have you.
The left(with you "moderates" have been pouring piss, smearing s**t and other disgusting things to the Bible, pictures of Christ etc. Can't for the life of me remember even one riot or beheading because of it.
Yup, beware all those baptist suicide bombers....
btw, before you send all of us "nuts" into space, remember that you call yourself a moderate, the next person may think you belong on that spaceship as well.....idiot.
Gee. What do we have? An 18 or 19 year old, not distinguishing between the extremists killing his friends and perpetrating unspeakable brutality in the name of Islam and the Iraqi soldiers he is fighting with?
ReplyDeleteHe apologized. His commanding officer apologized. It is time to move on. The left will exploit it and try to use a broad brush to paint all our military. Those that targeted us yesterday will go on targeting us, no matter what the excuse is today.
“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Marv--you know, for some of us Roman Catholics or Eastern Rite (Orthodox or other Catholic Rites) Christians, a lot of Baptists are flat out scary. Yeah, they probably aren't going to detonate anytime soon near us, but honestly? I've had enough (and I most definitely do NOT consider all self-identified evangelical Christian Protestants to share these attitudes, but every one of these people I meet who hold these do identify as the above) people tell my family that we aren't "real Christians", basically because we belong to churches not laden with American interpretations of Protestantism. OK, I could just call them a bunch of hicks as well, but increasingly not all of them are still just the redneck part of the population.
ReplyDeleteStill, if these people don't constitute an internal threat then I'm the Pope. I don't bully other Christians when it comes to my beliefs (in person at least...LOL), why do they seem to see this as their right and mission?
Ah well, as these bullies would say about many people in our country, I say the same about them, "Just keep them away from my children."
"I come before you here seeking your forgiveness," Hammond said to tribal leaders and others at the apology ceremony"...
ReplyDeleteOh geez!
This has got to be the 'Jimmy Carter - Hussein the Inane' war moment...
"That was the stupidest thing any soldier could have done. Way to lose a counterinsurgency"...
One loses counterinsurgency by NOT killing enough of the enemy and those that aid & abet the enemy...
History is replete with the sad facts of people who didn't understand that simple concept...
"He apologized. His commanding officer apologized"...
If there is any apologizing needed its due to the fact that a sunni wasn't holding onto that damn koran at the time...
"If we criticize General Hammond for apologizing, they we're asserting that we--sitting here in all our noncombatant glory--know better than the men who won the counterinsurgency against al Qaeda and Iran"...
Hmmm, tom w, on what planet did this happen on? Was it even in this galaxy?
Those cold-blooded, illiterate killers are at it again!
ReplyDelete--Olbermann, Stephen King, Jean-Francois Kerry, Code Pink, etc..
Anonymous 1:36
ReplyDeleteWell, since the Bible is a BOOK, I'd have no problem with it. And I'm married to a minister. I firmly and totally believe the Bible but the object itself is not holy. Should religious books be treated with respect? Sure, but Muslims go way overboard and are catered to because of their threats. Personally, I don't think it was the wisest thing the soldier could have done but it is no big deal. The more we cater to them, the worse it's gonna get.
It's odd you claim that making the difficult decision to not deliberately desecrate someone's holy book (putting his own squadmates in danger from retaliatiory attack, lest you forget) is a Chamberlainesque act of appeasement and "catering to the enemy". In English we call that "not being a f*cking idiot". Apparently every day I come into work without first pissing all over a Bible in front of my Christian colleagues is a courtesy I extend to them and not a basic expectation. Who knew?
ReplyDeletethe Koran is "just a book" to non-muslims, but it doesn't matter what OUR perspective is on this matter.
ReplyDeletewe are in THEIR country. our fantastic neo-con leadership has us nation-building for the 'good of Iraqis' and yet it's obvious it's about extending western values and oil.
as Ron Paul has stated, we once thought the communists would take over the world and now they're our banker, as we 'free' the world...