I am responding to the column by Susan Stamper-Brown asserting that Obama owes the military an apology.
The salient, and only relevant, facts are that the military burned the Quran and impassioned Muslims responded by killing Americans. That is the reality to which Obama, responding to the outrage and the killing apologized to protect our troops.
Brown’s ideologically-driven impassioned attack on Obama may warm, if not inflame, the emotions of those who hate Obama and blame him for everything from hang nails to high oil prices, but such tirades serve no good purpose.
I do not believe we should have combat troops in Afghanistan. But our troops are there. I believe that the violent reaction of some Muslims is irrational. But the reality is that our troops are there and outrage is real.
The president must deal with realities, not ideological pipe dreams. Apologies may not calm the outrage, but apologies certainly do not inflame outrage.
I have a grandson in Iraq. If apologies, whether or not justified by the facts, will save him from harm, let us all apologize. Apologies cost nothing. Brown would, apparently, rather vent irrational rage, at least as unjustified as that of the Muslims, than to protect her family members. Hopefully, Brown’s family members will not pay the ultimate price for her irrational egotism.
Grant Hubbard
Apache Junction
Dale Whiting posted at 9:17 am on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
Grant,
Bottom line, you are right and Brown is wrong, very wrong!
Some look blindly at the notion of "precipitation" seeking to know and understand only that one last event which seemed to cause the untoward current event. Others look past the prior events to find underlying causes, causes which also have predecessor events. Whether Hatfields or McCoys, Montigues or Capulets, they miss the point and others suffer.
Bottom line, we went into Afghanistan to find and punish bin Laden. But Osama bin Laden left years ago. We found him successfully hiding in neighboring Pakistan among those who ought to have been our allies, but obviously were not.
Whether or not apologizing will prevent harm to your grandson, in all sincerity, I join with you in apologizing. I apologize for our apparent failure to show respect for a hundred or more Korans, our apparent failure to understand that even desecrated Korans must be burned properly, our apparent failure to find bin Laden when he still was in Afghanistan, our continued presence in Afghanistan when reasons to leave are mounting and reasons to stay are all but vanished.
I thank your son for his sacrifice of time, his willingness to put himself in harm’s way, and for his display of courage in doing so. Please tell him to act safely, to show respect for those whom he meets, encouraging him to reach out showing respect to them, asking them humbly for understanding, both understanding of his and our bumbling ways and for understanding of their foreign ways.
After all, when in Afghanistan we ought to be striving to do as our Afghani hosts would have us do.
Furthermore, I join with Steve Benson of the Arizona Republican in apologizing for those who think no apology was needed. They ought to have known better.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:56 am on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
Sometimes I read things in our Local Newspapers (the Arizona Republic, the Mesa Tribune, the Phoenix New Times and the East Valley Tribune) that make me want to vomit. This is one of those times.
The US Military burned "defiled" (jailed Taliban and al-Queda Afghan terrorist had scribbled extremist messages on many of the pages) Qurans. The Military decided to burn these "defiled" Qurans. What should they have done with them....hand them out to Afghans on the street so that they could kill, torture and behead more American Military ??? Would that make the Liberals, the Progressives, the Democrats and the Socialists happy ???
Has the Letter writer and the commenter ever heard or saw the Twin Towers in New York City being attacked on 9/11 ???
The terrorist who was in charge of the 9/11 Attack was Kalid Sheikh Mohammed in case the Letter writer and the previous commenter were ignorant of this fact. Kalid Sheikh Mohammed trained the 9/11 Highjackers in.........AFGHANISTAN....maybe I need to spell out ever letter to drive the point home.....A.F.G.H.A.N.I.S.T.A.N.....AFGHANISTAN.
We all know that President Obama apologizes for America all over the World. He bows down to the Emperor of Japan. The same Japan who bombed Pearl Harbor and bayoneted, starved, beat and decapitated thousands of American Prisoners of War (I guess the Letter writer and the commenter have never heard of the Bataan Death March either). Then Obama bows down to the King of Saudi Arabia (the same Saudi Arabia where the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Queda get most of their funds...Osama bin Laden just happened to be born in Saudi Arabia too).
So now we have Barack Hussein Obama ....APOLOGIZING....to the corrupt President of Afghanistan.........if that doesn't make you want to vomit as an American Citizen...then maybe you should find a Socialist Country to live in.
DemocraticDad posted at 11:17 am on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
Thank you Grant! I pray for the safety of your grandson.
Masterrogue666 posted at 5:05 pm on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
I agree with Leon. The Quran's had already been defaced. No insult was meant, as they attempted to deal with them according to Muslim guidelines, so I heard.
I keep hearing that the Mulism faith is one of peace. REALLY?
Slabside posted at 6:43 pm on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
"If Obama apology saves lives, it’s well worth it"
That is a mighty big IF.
Dale Whiting posted at 8:08 pm on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
Leon, 666,
Once more, you are applying Western logic, values and reasoning to an Eastern Cultural problem. Even Kipling learned that East and West don't meet. When in the East, we either do as Easterners do, or we make enemies, perhaps unintentionally, and then we loose. Are your Western principles so valuable and important to you that you'll risk loosing to maintain them? Where so, you're nuts!
You appear to believe that once a Koran is defiled, it cannot be further defiled! Is that your value judgement? Or are you on a first name basis with an Imam. I am and plan to ask him about this matter early this coming week. But since he's not Afghani, I suspect he'll hedge his opinion a bit. And that's understandable.
But these opinions of yours are senseless, and based upon little more than conjecture from our culture not Afghani culture. And we are in Afghanistan with this problem, not in Arizona!
Rich posted at 9:37 pm on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
Infidels cannot properly dignify the burning of a desecrated Koran. An non-American cannot burn a desecrated American flag. It was an undignified, provocative thing to do. Basically, we should have more class than that. But, in a war, tell your enemy, 'Hey we're barbarian berserkers.' It was an act of war, which is already insane. Don't make it worse, as Obama is doing.
wdgnas posted at 6:58 am on Sun, Mar 4, 2012.
leon: why not take the defiled Qurans to the local mosques and show them to the imams? ask them what should have be done with them. shame and quilt are VERY powerful tools used by religions.
dale: i would be interested to hear what the imam has to say about this.
Rational Human posted at 8:36 am on Sun, Mar 4, 2012.
It sure is comforting to know our president will suck up to sheep dip at the first chance he gets. Apologizing to a stupid as rocks people sure does fill me with confidence and awe that our president and foreign policy have absolutely nothing in common. I would like to see him applying Western logic, values and reasoning to every situation he faces throughout the world, but then he would have to have and believe in Western logic, values and reasoning. Moochell never had any pride in America until we the stupid voted in an socialist who spent 20 years every Sunday, in a black liberation theology church, listening to a man preach God Dam America! And then look America straight in the eye and say all those 20 years he never heard those words said.
Masterrogue666 posted at 1:17 pm on Sun, Mar 4, 2012.
I copied this from the original article:
"Representative Allen West (R-FL) who was appointed to both the House Armed Services Committee and Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee concurs with the CBS report. In his February 26, 2012 newsletter, West said the Parwan detainees “used the Koran [Quran] to write jihadist messages.”
Based on this information, the detainees, and not the military, are to blame for the incident because they defiled their own sacred books, hence violating both Islamic cultural practices and the Parwan Detention facility contraband rules.
According to the same CBS report, Islamic teaching mandates that defiled Qurans be “burned or buried” meaning there is much ado about nothing because the military followed Islamic teaching as well as their own procedures for disposal of contraband."
So one side states the books weren't burned correctly, and the other side states they were. Which is correct?
My opinion was not "based upon little more than conjecture", it was base upon what I read above. IF we did wrong, that's one thing, but shouldn't we know first? Also, why does the President need to apologize? How about the person in charge there, or Mrs. Clinton?
I don't recall (honestly), Did the President apologize to the American People for Operation "Fast and Furious"? Did anyone?
Rich posted at 6:52 pm on Sun, Mar 4, 2012.
Tell you what would work. Get an '800' number in Calcutta, hire a native to answer it and say 'I'm sorry'. What's the problem with the White House, not up on the latest technology? Every HI-tech company has a Calcutta 'I'm sorry' number.
Dale Whiting posted at 6:51 pm on Mon, Mar 5, 2012.
666,
General Allen in Afghanistan is investigating. Hopefully when he's done, we'll know more. But I'll repeat what I learned from some researching on my own.
The largest destroyer of Korans is the Saudi Government. All who enter Saudi Arabia on their pilgramage carrying with them a Koran not printed in Saudi Arabia have their copy seized and replaced with one that was printed in Saudi Arabia. Apparantly Waahabists are perticular about Korans. Those seized go through a three step process, likely supervised by clerics. First they are thoroughly shreded. Next, the shreded paper is burned, thoroughly. Finally, the ashes are burried.
Now we did a lousy job. I saw an Afghani holding up to the camera what was supposed to have been a burned page. After the fire went out, pages could still be seen with only charred edges! No shredding, no complete burning, no burying! I do not wish to make comparisons. But who in the US needing to destroy a soiled flag would only burn its edges? It don't take an eagle scout to see the problem!
When in Rome or when in Afghanistan, we must do as the natives do. And it would appear that we did not! So without question the apology was appropriate!
Masterrogue666 posted at 7:25 pm on Mon, Mar 5, 2012.
What I'm curious about is why didn't we let their clerics dispose of them, if it's such a touchy subject for them? In any event, I still think a subordinate, more directly involved, should apologize, if one is considered needed.
Does the leader of their country make a public apology when something's done that we'd consider a need for an apology, let say, the beheading of an innocent?
Rich posted at 8:52 pm on Mon, Mar 5, 2012.
Mr666
Realize, the world is terrified, If we don't. The head of state on Afghanistan is another welfare recipient.