I would instead like to draw attention to the repugnant statement issued by General David Petraeus and NATO Ambassador Mark Sedwill:
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KABUL, Afghanistan (April 3, 2011) – In view of the events of recent days, we feel it is important on behalf of ISAF [i.e., the International Security Assistance Force] and NATO members in Afghanistan to reiterate our condemnation of any disrespect to the Holy Qur’an and the Muslim faith. We condemn, in particular, the action of an individual in the United States who recently burned the Holy Qur’an.??
We also offer condolences to the families of all those injured and killed in violence which occurred in the wake of the burning of the Holy Qur’an.??
We further hope the Afghan people understand that the actions of a small number of individuals, who have been extremely disrespectful to the Holy Qur’an, are not representative of any of the countries of the international community who are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people.
Notice he condemns the moron who torched the Koran — um, I’m sorry, the Holy Qur’an (including all its holy verses that command Muslims to strike terror into the hearts of unbelievers) — but not a word of condemnation for the sadistic jihadist killers who struck terror into the hearts of the unbelievers. Rather, there is just an expression of sympathy for the families of those who were slain. And, of course, there is not a word of condemnation for our great ally, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the jihadi-pandering sleaze who did more to incite murder than the nutty Florida pastor did.
The warped moral universe we’ve turned into policy has become a national embarrassment. Leave aside the mind-bending idiocy of the Graham theory, under which it would have been condemnable to torch Das Capital during the Cold War. Our Middle East policymakers can no longer distinguish between evil and stupidity. They go out of their way to genuflect to the scriptures that catalyze our enemies while willfully ignoring bible burning, church burning and infidel burning, which are everyday events in Islamic countries. Their strategy prizes the lives of people who despise our country over the security of our troops. After a decade of our sacrifice, they have managed to birth states in which Americans are hated, religious minorities are persecuted, and people who attempt to convert from Islam face prosecution and — unless they get whisked out of the country — the death penalty. And now, they’ve decide the big problem is not their skewed value-system but our First Amendment.
Enough. Petraeus says, “we are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people.” Is that why you thought we sent troops to Afghanistan? Is that what you think we should be doing in Afghanistan now? I am pretty confident that most Americans couldn’t care less about the Afghan people, and I know the Afghan people couldn’t care less about us — except to the extent they trouble themselves to dislike us.
We got in this to defeat our enemies, and we’re ending up defeating ourselves and the principles for which we once stood. We never had any strategic vision of the global war, we had no stomach to follow through on the Bush Doctrine commitment to eradicate the rogue regimes that were behind the terror networks, and we decided we could outreach and democratize them into submission. Now we are predictably hoisted on our own petard as Islamists exploit our rhetoric to make themselves the champions of “democracy” — meaning of elections that are bringing to power those who hate our country and whose ambition is to destroy Israel and the West. Obviously, no one in government is willing to change this policy, so let’s end it.
What should our new policy be? We should have as little to do with Muslim countries as possible. At home, we should focus on the political and legal terrain with an eye toward:
(a) distinguishing between our allies in the American Muslim community (i.e., those who do not want to impose sharia on public life) and those who seek to undermine our constitutional system, so we can marginalize the latter;
(b) excluding from the United States aliens who would support supplanting the U.S. Constitution with a sharia system (i.e., revisiting the hash Congress and the courts have made regarding the reliance on anti-American ideology — not just ties to violence — as a basis for keeping non-Americans out of our country); and
(c) cutting off immigration from, and sharply reducing contacts with, Muslim countries until they take it on themselves to reform — on separation of mosque and state, freedom of conscience, equality, interfaith tolerance, individual liberty, and unambiguous rejection of terrorism.
Not only is that a policy that can work, it is one an insolvent country can actually afford.
Isn’t it strange that when Moslems blow up each other’s mosques, presumably resulting in the destruction of many copies of the Koran, no one seems to be outraged? And that when Moslems burn the Bible, or use its pages for toilet paper (both have been reliably reported), no one in the US government, or NATO, the EU, the UN, etc., finds any reason to voice a criticism? What would happen if Christians started randomly killing innocent Moslems every time the Bible was desecrated by other Moslems, thousands of miles away and from a different country?
It’s high time to insist on even-handedness in these matters, as well as to take firm action against those who exercise their religion by murdering people. Mass demonstrations in favor of such murders, held in places like Afghanistan, would be a good place to start.
What about the Muslims fana defaming with impunity the non-Muslims!
General Patraeus was speaking common sense. This was a stunt by a dazed Florida pastor who has used up more than his 15 minutes of fame. Wolf Blitzer on CNN yesterday was furious that Karzai publicized this to Afghans because much of the press had refused to give that old goat any more publicity. This is an A + B = C. When someone says offensive things about the Quran, some Muslim extremist somewhere is going to use it against the U.S. and whoever else to prod backward, unsophisticated Muslims to react. It happens like clockwork. People like the pastor can take over U. S. foreign policy, and I bet this will be outlawed by congress in some form, like illegal agitating for war. These bastard Muslims killed several UN workers, I guess whoever was handy from the West. We can’t deal with people like this.
The U.S. must leave Afghanistan and Pakistan as soon as possible. Pakistan hasn’t been worth a damn since Mufaruf (you know who I mean) was kicked out. At least he could control the various factions. He wants to run for president again, but opponents are keeping him from doing so. So we have a rogue Pakistan that I think is a lost cause with nuclear weapons. Straight out of a Robert Ludlum novel except the ending is unknown.
El Baradei, who is considering a run for Egyptian president, says if he is president and Israel attacks Gaza, he will declare war on Israel. He didn’t say if Israel was responding to an attack by Gaza it would make any difference. El Baradei is a bumpkin. He doesn’t know Middle East history, especially as it pertains to the Holy Land of the Jews and Christians. He said if Israel attacks he would open the gates at Rafah (which goes into Egypt?), which would be good because it would allow women, children, the ill and aged to escape, along with Hamas fighters who are cowards. You won’t find Nasrallah there, that’s for sure.
Some website just said Patraeus is being considered for the job as head of the CIA. I agree, especially if it means he brings all U.S. troops home with him.
We have finally joined Alice in the land behind the looking-glass. Here down is up, white is black, purple is orange, bad is good, and survival has been replaced by suicidal. Are you all there, or is the populace of that nation within a nation composed only of myopic members of Congress, the Supreme Court and the executive branch of the government? Did I forget to mention a general who is a pacifist, but only toward the poor under-privileged enemy that is deprived of nuclear weapons and other technologically advanced means to destroy civilization as we know it?
The U.S. Constitution seems to be the only safeguard that stands between the sane American majority and Sharia law. It seems that freedom of speech, choice and thought is under constant fire by the very people who would be first to lose under a fundamentalist regime – the media, the ACLU, and all those who support the destruction of our country. … truly a journey into insanity.
a well-reasoned argument, albeit impossible to implement (with the current political leadership), and not likely to succeed (because it’s too hard to tell the “good moslems” from the “bad moslems”).
but it wouldn’t be any worse than the current policy of appeasement cum dhimmitude.
“an appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last” – winston churchill
Send Petraeus where he can do no harm!
Petraeus is merely following the lead of his liege lord Obama to ingratiate the US with Islam at any cost.
There can be no such thing as total freedom for that is anarchy.
But an obscene, immoral, hate spewing book like the Koran cannot be considered free speech. What it demands of its followers and proposes for non Muslims is a call for total submission, the elimination of all freedoms. It should be rated as the an illegal publication the sole purpose of which is to destroy what has been so dearly earned by western civilization.
Such a clarion call to hatred, enslavement, torture, conquest and murder is nothing more than a weapon, a weapon wielded by those who would annihilate western civilization and like all weapons yielded by enemies must be destroyed before it destroys us.
Any sign of weakness emboldens our enemies. Petraeus’ words will only encourage the terrorists to inflict more terror.
The Pastor is correct when he stated: “Muslims always find a way to kill, maim, behead or undermind the West. It it weren’t for the burning of this sadist book the quran, it would be something else!”
i for one think, we should leave them alone, and fight it out among themselfs; bring our troops home. These bastards take kindness for hatred!
My guess would be that General Petraeus thinks he can appease militant Muslims away from violent action but our very presence in Afghanistan attracts violent action. They don’t need a Koran burning to egg them on. The whole world can’t go around walking on eggs being afraid they might provoke Muslims. As far as curtailing free speech or taking away any of our freedoms because we are engaged in military action I would only refer to the famous comment of Benjamin Franklin, “Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security” .
Thank you General. That is wonderful.
All we need now is a few muslim leaders to apologise for burning the Union Jack, the Stars and Stripes and the remberance (veterans) day poppies and we will all live happily ever after. Strawberries, cream with honey on the top and we will all sing “Kumbayah” together