Thread: US Military Burns Bibles but Condemns Burning Korans

US Military Burns Bibles but Condemns Burning Korans
February 24, 2012 by The Godfather
Comments (149)

Bible BurningIf reports are accurate, it looks like those who burned Korans that had been written in to deliver secret messages to other prisoners may have to stand trial. We’re not hearing anything about whether those who killed US troops over the affair will suffer a similar fate.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had accused a United States officer of “ignorantly” burning copies of the Koran. As a result, rioters took to the streets. So far, 11 people, in addition to the two U.S. servicemen, have been killed.

Demonstrations have drawn thousands of angry Afghans to the streets, chanting “Death to America!”

“NATO officials, in response to a request for the trial and punishment of the perpetrators … promised this crime will brought to court as soon as possible,” Karzai’s office said in a statement.

President Barack Obama sent a letter to Karzai apologizing for the burning of the Korans, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish at the Bagram Air Base.

I don’t know if the President has said anything about the deaths of two United States soldiers and he wants an apology from Afghan President Karzai. Apologies these days are mostly a one-way street. We’re doing all the apologizing.

Our government apologizes for burning a few Korans, and yet it burns thousands of Bibles at the same Bagram Air Force Base. Here’s a CNN story from 2009 that is not getting any media attention:

Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned, confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used to try to convert Afghans, a Defense Department spokesman said. The unsolicited Bibles sent by a church in the United States were confiscated . . . at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan because military rules forbid troops of any religion from proselytizing while deployed there, Lt. Col. Mark Wright said. . . .

“The decision was made that it was a ‘force protection’ measure to throw them away, because, if they did get out, it could be perceived by Afghans that the U.S. government or the U.S. military was trying to convert Muslims,” Wright told CNN on Tuesday.

Troops at posts in war zones are required to burn their trash, Wright said.

According to the military, the Bibles were “trash.”

The one thing that would help the blood-crazed Middle East, military rules say it must be destroyed. Is it any wonder that we are not making any progress as the body counts continues to mount? God is not mocked. We are trying to win a war with bullets, missiles, and drones instead of God’s Word. What’s worse, shooting bullets or dropping Bibles all over the Middle East?

On May 28th, 1849, Robert C. Winthrop (1809–1894), descendant of Governor John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, addressed the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Bible Society in Boston, and said in part, “Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.”

Read more: US Military Burns Bibles but Condemns Burning Korans - Godfather Politics US Military Burns Bibles but Condemns Burning Korans - Godfather Politics

2 (MORE) Americans dead after altercation at Afghan ministry


Rahim Faiez Associated Press

KABUL— A gunman killed two American military advisers inside a heavily guarded government building in the heart of Kabul Saturday as protests over the burning of the Muslim holy book at a U.S. base raged across the country for a fifth day.


The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was retaliation for the Qur’an burnings, and the NATO commander recalled all international military personnel working in Afghan ministries in the capital.

The two advisers, including a lieutenant colonel and a major, were shot in the back of the head, according to Western officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information.

U.S. officials said the assailant — who has not been identified by name or nationality — remained at large and a manhunt was under way.
Afghan Defence Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak called U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta to apologize for the shooting and offer his condolences, Pentagon press secretary George Little said in a statement.

“This act is unacceptable and the United States condemns it in the strongest possible terms,” Little said.

Little said that Wardak indicated that President Hamid Karzai was assembling religious leaders, parliamentarians, Supreme Court justices and other senior Afghan officials to take urgent steps to protect coalition forces. Little also said U.S. Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, met with Afghan Interior Minister Bismullah Khan Mohammadi, who offered both his condolences to the families of the victims and his apologies.

“The United States remains dedicated to working with the Afghan people against the common threat of violent extremism and to build an Afghanistan that can secure and govern itself,” Little said.

An apology from President Barack Obama has failed to quell public outrage over what NATO insisted was an accidental desecration of the Qur’an. At least 28 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since Tuesday, when it first emerged that Qurans and other religious materials had been thrown into a fire pit used to burn garbage at Bagram Air Field, a large U.S. base north of Kabul.

Among those dead were two U.S. soldiers who were killed Thursday by one of their Afghan counterparts while a riot raged outside their base in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

Allen said he recalled all NATO personnel from the ministries “for obvious force protection reasons” but the alliance remains committed to its partnership with the Afghan government.

He said NATO is investigating Saturday's shooting and will pursue all leads to find the person responsible for the attack.

“The perpetrator of this attack is a coward whose actions will not go unanswered,” Allen said.

NATO forces have advisers embedded in many Afghan ministries, both as trainers and to help manage the transition to Afghan control and foreign forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014. The Afghan Interior Ministry oversees all of the country's police, so has numerous NATO advisers.

Two Afghan officials said the ministry shooting did not involve any Afghans. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a NATO incident. One of the officials noted that the shooting occurred inside a secure room at the ministry that Afghan staff do not have access to.

NATO confirmed that two service members were killed, but spokesman Lt. Col Jimmie Cummings said “initial reports say it was not a Western shooter.” He declined to provide further information.

A U.S. official in Washington confirmed that the two killed were Americans. The official spoke anonymously because the information has not been publicly released.

Tensions between the Afghans and the Americans already were high following the Qur’an burnings. Anti-American sentiment has been on the rise in the war-weary country, and several foreign troops have been killed by Afghan soldiers in recent months. Some of those shootings have been blamed on personal hostilities, while others have been attributed to Taliban infiltrators.

In a statement, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the gunman was an insurgent named Abdul Rahman. He said an accomplice inside the ministry helped him get inside the compound. He said the killings were a planned response to the Qur’an burnings.

“After the attack, Rahman informed us by telephone that he was able to kill four high-ranking American advisers,” Mujahid said. The Taliban frequently exaggerate casualty claims.

In Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province in northeast Afghanistan, more than 1,000 protesters demonstrated against the Qur’an burnings. At first they were peaceful, but as the protest continued they began throwing stones at government buildings and a U.N. office, said Sarwer Hussaini, a spokesman for the provincial police. He said the police were firing into the air to try to disperse the crowd.

Dr. Saad Mukhtar, health department director in Kunduz, said at least three protesters died and 50 others were injured during the melee.
The U.N. confirmed in a statement that its Kunduz compound was attacked, but said all its staff in Kunduz and in the rest of the country were unhurt and safe.

The Star


US troops injured in Afghan protests
February 26, 2012

A hand grenade tossed by an Afghan protester has injured 7 US
troops at a base in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz.

Voice of Russia Radio

I hope that when we leave there, ALL of the military equipment comes home or is permenantly disabled or destroyed.

No US service member should be put on trial for destroying a reprinted, desecrated book. Where is the outrage at the persecution and elimination of Afgan Christians?

Despicable actions in Iran and Afghanistan: A double feature


SAN DIEGO, February 25, 2012―While a 34 year old Christian pastor awaits execution in Iran for the “crime” of converting to Christianity from Islam, other Muslims demonstrate their holiness in Afghanistan.
After all, only a devout follower of God would kill those mean and nasty Americans for an accidental burning of Koran copies. Never mind that America liberated Afghanistan from an oppressive Taliban rule.

Speaking of Taliban, they responded rather predictably to President Obama’s apology, offered to Afghanistan's president and people:
“The error was inadvertent,” Obama wrote in a letter to his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, according to Karzai’s office. “I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible” (ABC News, February, 23, 2012).

These beautiful, heart felt words did not exactly bring a tear to the eye of the Taliban:

“We should not be satisfied with mere protests and empty slogans but the military bases of the invaders, their military convoys and their troops should become a target of our courageous attacks,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement directed to Taliban fighters and the “zealous and faithful people of Afghanistan.

“Kill them, beat them, take them as prisoners and teach them such a lesson that they never summon the courage to abuse the Holy Qur’an again,” he said” (CNS News, February 24, 2012).

And so, Obama’s apology is working about as well as his diplomatic gestures toward Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who was asked nicely to stop developing a nuclear bomb. Just as Iran’s smiling public servant seems more interested in extinguishing Jews than extinguishing nuclear development, the Taliban and other Afghani citizens find their own way to express appreciation for Obama’s olive branch.

Such thankfulness expresses itself with guns, bricks, and flag burnings. In all fairness, they are not the first to showcase their gratitude in a somewhat eccentric fashion. Palestinians thanked Israel for the Gaza Strip by burning down Jewish synagogues and firing missiles into Israel. Missiles, synagogue burnings, flag burnings, and dead American soldiers do not concern radical Muslims.

Burning a book by accident? That concerns them!

While it might seem obvious to confront such hypocritical evil, political correctness, shields Islam like a mother bear protecting her cubs.
President Obama never tires of defending the religion: “The phrase jihad has a lot of meaning within Islam and is subject to a lot of different interpretations, but I will say that first Islam is one of the world's great religions. More than a billion people practice Islam and an overwhelming majority view their obligations to a religion that reaffirms peace, fairness, tolerance. I think all of us recognize that this great religion in the hands of a few extremists has been distorted by violence,” (The Hindu, November 7, 2010).

Our government needs to speak up for peaceful Muslims a little less and instead demand that these self proclaimed peaceful Muslims speak up a little more by condemning the violent relatives in their family.
This is not accomplished by attaching long, patronizing lectures about Israel or oil to a quick three second denunciation of violence. It is done by condemning the violence period! While some peaceful Muslims certainly do speak out heroically, the high majority are turning in a dismal report card.

In fact, the Organization of the Islamic Conference will actually outlaw derogatory talk of Islam if they ever get enough muscle from the U.N.
“For over a decade, the OIC (has systematically worked to criminalize the "defamation of Islam" and to protect Islam from "blasphemy." In yearly resolutions at the UN on "combating defamation of religions" the OIC complains "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism."

"Professor Ekmeledin Ihsanoglu, head of the OIC, said the issue of Islamophobia has been placed "at the top of our priorities and preoccupations, while conducting a large-scale worldwide effort to confront it" (American Thinker, January 30, 2012).

Human rights violations and terrorism associated with Islam? Where oh where would anybody get a stupid idea like that? Yes, CLEARLY, to even suggest such a thing is “Islamophobia.”

Intolerant voices continue to lecture the rest of us about tolerance. With every outbreak of new violence, an obligatory disclaimer takes center stage, explaining how most Muslims are actually quite peaceful. This song and dance has had more performances than Cats.

Enter Obama from Stage Left, (Left being the operative word). When he continues to soothe Muslims in the midst of riots and other violence, it comes across as if he is apologizing to the violent Muslims along with the peaceful ones. Such effort puts out fires about as well as liquid gasoline on a barbeque. We need more from our fearless leader. We need more from the peaceful Muslims he defends. When distilled down to bare facts without all the nuance and Newspeak, a pretty weak case remains:

“Honestly, Islam really is a peaceful religion. We can see where it may not look always look that way.”

No it does not look that way when churches are burned down in Egypt, or Bibles are forbidden in Saudi Arabia, or children in Palestinian schools are taught that Jews are devils. But don’t assume alternate religions to Islam are the only targets. Homosexuals are executed in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. And when those fun, loving Taliban ran Afghanistan, they went after homosexuals with special cruelty. Of course this did not catch as much news attention as their inhumane treatment of women. One of the more creative punishments sliced off the top of a woman’s thumb for having the audacity to wear nail polish. The religion of peace hard at work!


With such persecution of women and homosexuals, one would think these Muslim countries would be more frequently denounced by liberals. But in an ironic twist of fate, Islam managed to become a Politically Correct religion. It took 9/11 to make this happen. After slitting the throats of stewardesses, ramming planes into buildings, and then (in the months that followed) beheading people like Nick Berg while chanting to Allah and then posting the whole thing on the Internet where all could share in the joy, somehow, Islam became known as an extremely peaceful faith. Woe to any who say otherwise!

Of course, it’s still open season on Christianity. An American artist portrays Christ in a bottle of urine without worrying about a group of monks or nuns putting out a hit contract. Meanwhile, film director, Theo Van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim for daring to make a film about Islamic violence. That ought to teach us to stop calling Islam a violent religion!

The peaceful wing of Islam needs to make a better case. They can start by admitting that their cousins in the violent wing are indeed religious, not merely people who hijack religion for political gain. Why else would they be going ballistic when a Koran is destroyed, the same Koran which instructs them to make war against infidels? (Surah 9)

It is not about oil. It is not about Israel. It is not about America. If it were, Obama’s Magical Mystery Apology Tour would have produced better results. Instead, those we liberate feel free to kill our soldiers, and those we ask nicely to stop building bombs continue the bomb building while sentencing pastors to death and drawing new maps with Israel conspicuously omitted.

Obama functions less like a leader of the free world and more like a battered wife who enables her violent husband. Had he been president during World War Two, Obama might have apologized for the fall of Berlin. Hitler would not have followed suit by offering remorse about little projects such as Ausztwich.

What’s next, Mr. President? Should we offer Iranians and Afghanis a free Slurpee at 7/11? How about an all expense paid trip to Disneyland? The Taliban would get a kick out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Oh wait! They’d also execute Tinker Bell for her scantily clad outfit. Never mind.

Washington Times

Barack Obama Apologizes For Burning Korans But Not For Burning Bibles?

February 26th, 2012

It has become exceedingly clear that Barack Obama does not believe that all religions should be treated equally. In recent days Barack Obama has gone to great lengths to apologize for the "inadvertent" burning of Korans by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan.

In fact, Obama has given his word that the United States will be "holding accountable those responsible" for the burning of the Korans. But when the U.S. military purposely burned Bibles in Afghanistan a few years ago, there was never any apology from Barack Obama. Christian groups all over the U.S. expressed great outrage but there was dead silence from Obama. So why the double standard? Do Muslims get an apology because they are willing to become violent over the burning of a Koran? Does Barack Obama consider a Koran to be more valuable than a Bible? Exactly what in the world is going on here?

Barack Obama sent Afghan President Hamid Karzai a three page letter on Thursday apologizing for the burning of Korans at a NATO air base in Bagram. In the letter, Obama specifically promised that those "responsible" would be punished....

"The error was inadvertent; I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible."

Well, the truth is that the soldiers that dumped the Korans into the incinerator were just following orders.

So who is going to be held responsible?

Their superior officers?

Someone higher up in the chain of command?

Barack Obama is sitting in the chair of the Commander in Chief.

Doesn't the buck stop with him?

Of course we all know that some poor scapegoat will be found. That is the way these kinds of things always work.
Ever since news of this Koran burning got out, Afghanistan has been in a constant state of turmoil. Both Afghans and U.S. soldiers have been killed in the wild violence that has erupted. The following is from a Reuters article....

The Koran burnings ignited anti-Western fury. Thousands have taken to the streets and at least 27 people have been killed in the protests. Two American soldiers were shot to death on Thursday by an Afghan national army soldier who joined the rallies.

Even Afghan police officers and Afghan soldiers have joined in the anti-American protests. The following example is from the New York Times....

Mohammed Anwar, an off-duty police officer, had joined the protesters on Friday and seemed barely able to contain his fury. “I will take revenge from the infidels for what they did to our Holy Koran, and I will kill them whenever I get the chance,” he said as he walked with crowd of protesters wielding rocks and sticks. “I don’t care about the job I have.”

This is a story that is not going to die any time soon, and Barack Obama will continue to ensure the Afghan people that nothing like this will ever happen again.

But there was never a single word of apology from Obama for the deliberate burning of Christian Bibles by U.S. forces in Afghanistan that happened just a few years ago.

Apparently the burning of Bibles is not a problem for the Obama administration.

Many of you may not have heard about that incident. The following is how a CNN article back in 2009 described what happened....

Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned, confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used to try to convert Afghans, a Defense Department spokesman said Tuesday.

You can view a video news report about this incident right here.

There was no letter of apology when Christian groups expressed anger about this.

So why does the Koran get treated with far more respect by the U.S. government than the Bible does?

But this is far from the only time that Barack Obama has given Islam a tremendous amount of respect while showing tremendous disdain for Christianity.

The following are 10 quotes from Barack Obama that show the incredible admiration that he has regularly expressed for the religion of Islam....

#1 "Islam has always been part of America"

#2 "we will encourage more Americans to study in Muslim communities"

#3 "These rituals remind us of the principles that we hold in common, and Islam’s role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings."

#4 "America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

#5 "So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed"

#6 "Ramadan is a celebration of a faith known for great diversity and racial equality"

#7 "As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith."

#8 "I look forward to hosting an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan here at the White House later this week, and wish you a blessed month."

#9 "That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn't. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear."

#10 "I also know that Islam has always been a part of America's story."

Now, compare those quotes to these 10 quotes from Barack Obama about Christianity....

#1 "Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation"

#2 "We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation."

#3 "Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith?"

#4 "Even those who claim the Bible's inerrancy make distinctions between Scriptural edicts, sensing that some passages - the Ten Commandments, say, or a belief in Christ's divinity - are central to Christian faith, while others are more culturally specific and may be modified to accommodate modern life."

#5 "The American people intuitively understand this, which is why the majority of Catholics practice birth control and some of those opposed to gay marriage nevertheless are opposed to a Constitutional amendment to ban it. Religious leadership need not accept such wisdom in counseling their flocks, but they should recognize this wisdom in their politics."

#6 From Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope: "I am not willing to have the state deny American citizens a civil union that confers equivalent rights on such basic matters as hospital visitation or health insurance coverage simply because the people they love are of the same sex—nor am I willing to accept a reading of the Bible that considers an obscure line in Romans to be more defining of Christianity than the Sermon on the Mount."

#7 "I find it hard to believe that my God would consign four-fifths of the world to hell. I can't imagine that my God would allow some little Hindu kid in India who never interacts with the Christian faith to somehow burn for all eternity. That's just not part of my religious makeup."

#8 "Those opposed to abortion cannot simply invoke God’s will--they have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths."

#9 On his support for civil unions for gay couples: "If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount."

#10 "I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people."

Do you notice a difference?

In the end, Barack Obama can believe whatever he wants to believe.

Everyone gets to make a choice.

But the American people should take note of how he regularly goes out of his way to treat Islam with the utmost respect while not doing the same for Christianity.

And as I have written about previously, the Christian faith is under assault in America like never before.

In our television shows and in our movies, Bible-believing Christians are almost never portrayed as the heroes. Instead, they are almost always portrayed as villains or as crazy people.

It has become fashionable to treat Bible-believing Christians with blatant disrespect and we have been taught that we must push all expressions of the Christian faith out of public life.

If you are a public school student and you try to talk about Jesus with your fellow classmates there is a good chance that you will be suspended from school.

If you want to go out on a public sidewalk and discuss your faith with others, there is a good chance that you will be arrested.

If you are anti-abortion, if you have "radical theology" or if you are against "the New World Order", there is the possibility that you will be labeled as a "potential terrorist" by the Department of Homeland Security.

Can you see where all of this is headed?

If Barack Obama is going to apologize for burning Korans then he should also apologize for burning Bibles.

But that is not the way that Barack Obama does things and that is not the way that the U.S. government has done things for a very long time.

If you are a Bible-believing Christian, you need to start preparing for dark times because persecution is coming. The world system that we live in does not like you, and the leap from blatant disrespect to violent repression is not as far as you might think.




http://endoftheamericandream.com/arc...burning-bibles

If you are a Bible-believing Christian, you need to start preparing for dark times because persecution is coming. The world system that we live in does not like you, and the leap from blatant disrespect to violent repression is not as far as you might think.

Sadly, I believe it

Mark Levin’s EPIC Apology to The Troops for Prez Obama
Posted on February 28, 2012 by Conservative Byte
Print Friendly

Levin is livid over the way things are being handled in Afghanistan and has had enough. He says that we should carpet-bomb the hell out of the Taliban and that we should have never apologized in the first place for burning Korans that had already been destroyed by the enemy.

But the epic part of this clip comes when Levin apologizes to the men and women serving in the military, and their families, for “this jerk who’s the Command-in-Chief, for this jerk who’s the Secretary of State, for this Jerk who’s the Secretary of Defense, for the whole damn bunch of them!”


Mark Levin



My feeling is Obama needs to apologize to every American citizen as well as our soldiers for what he is doing to our Nation.

White House Won’t Release Obama’s 3 Page Apology Letter to Hamid Karzai
Posted on February 28, 2012 by Conservative Byte
Print Friendly

The White House press secretary told members of the press pool aboard Air Force One today that President Obama’s “sincere” apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for a Koran-burning incident “is not appropriate to show” to reporters.

Jay Carney spoke with reporters for about 20 minutes as the presidential entourage flew to Florida for a speech on energy at the University of Miami.

Obama’s letter to Karzai that included the apology was “a lengthy, three-page letter on a host of issues, several sentences of which relate to this matter,” according to the travel pool report.

“The president, following up on a telephone conversation … wrote a long letter on a variety of issues related to our bilateral engagement, including reconciliation, including the trilateral talks that we had with Pakistan last week in Islamabad,” Carney said. “He also expressed his apology for the inadvertent burning of religious materials by American personnel in Afghanistan. It is wholly appropriate given the understandable sensitivities to this issue. His primary concern as commander in chief is the safety of American men and women in Afghanistan, of our military and civilian personnel there. It’s absolutely the right thing to do.”

Carney said Karzai did not request the apology letter. Obama spoke with Karzai the day before sending the letter.



White House Won


Can we say impeachment

Inside Look at Congressional Briefing on Islamization of America (Ep 10)



Victoria Jackson gives an account of the briefing she attended at the House Office Longworth Building. The briefing was given by an ex-FBI agent. He showed pictures, names, dates, Islamic law books, Korans and Surahs. Victoria shares how the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated our highest positions in government and how they are working with Hilary Clinton to get 'Islamophobia' punishable by law.

Inside Look at Congressional Briefing on Islamization of America (Ep 10) - YouTube

For What, All These Wars?
By Patrick J. Buchanan
February 28, 2012
Subscribe to Patrick J. Buchanan's posts


"I wish to express my deep regret for the reported incident. ... I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies."

As President Obama sent this letter of apology to Hamid Karzai for the burning by U.S. troops of Qurans that were used to smuggle notes between Afghan prisoners, two U.S. soldiers were murdered in reprisal.

Saturday, a U.S. colonel and a major working in the Interior Ministry were shot dead by an Afghan protesting the desecration of the Islamic holy book. All U.S. officers have been pulled out of the ministries in Kabul. Sunday, seven U.S. troops on base were wounded by a grenade.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. John Allen, commander in Afghanistan, have also offered their apologies.

Remarkable. After fighting for 10 years, investing $500 billion, and losing nearly 2,000 dead and many more wounded and maimed to save Afghanistan from a Taliban future, America is issuing apologies to the regime and people we are fighting and dying to defend?

And how has Obama's apology been received?

Abdul Sattar Khawasi, a member of Parliament, stood with 20 other members to declare, "Americans are invaders, and jihad against Americans is an obligation." He urged mullahs to "urge the people ... to wage war against Americans."

In what other war would we have tolerated this from an elected leader of a government we had sent an army of 100,000 to protect?

Undeniably, the soldiers who burned the Qurans blundered. Yet there is no evidence that it was malicious. If vandals desecrate a Bible in America, burning and replacing the holy book would not be regarded a valid excuse for mayhem and murder.

If Afghans cannot understand this mistake and have no other way to express their rage than rioting and ranting, "Death to America!" what kind of raw material are we working with in building a Western-style democracy in any foreseeable century?

Two pertinent questions needs to be put.

While keeping Afghanistan free of the Taliban is a desirable goal, what vital U.S. interest would be imperiled should the Taliban take over again, now that al-Qaida is largely gone?

What price in blood and billions should we expend on what appears a dubious enterprise at best — creating a pro-American democracy in a country that seems mired in some distant century?

It is time we took inventory of all of these wars we have fought since the Army of Desert Storm restored the emir of Kuwait to his throne.

That 1991 war was seen as a triumph of American arms and a model of the global cooperation to come in establishing the New World Order of George H.W. Bush.

But the savage sanctions we imposed on a defeated Iraq and the planting of U.S. bases on Saudi soil that is home to Mecca was a casus belli for Osama bin Laden. Ten years after the triumph of Bush I, he brought down the twin towers.

This atrocity caused us to plunge into Afghanistan to dump over the Taliban and eradicate or expel al-Qaida. We succeeded, then decided to stay on and build a nation. After 10 years, what have we accomplished to justify the immense price we have paid?

In 2003, George W. Bush, seeking to complete the work begun by his father, invaded Iraq. But Saddam had no role in 9/11 and was no threat to America. Iraq did not even have weapons of mass destruction.

Today, after eight years of war, 4,500 dead, 35,000 wounded and a trillion dollars sunk, the 15,000 Americans we left behind are largely holed up in the Green Zone, as Iraq descends into sectarian, civil and ethnic war.

What did it all profit us?

How goes Libya after the U.S.-NATO intervention to dethrone Moammar Gadhafi?

Here is the Rand Corp.'s Frederic Wehrey:

"A weak transitional government confronts armed militias. ... Defiant young men with heavy weapons control Libya's airports, harbors and oil installations. Tribes and smugglers rule desert areas south of the capital. Clashes among various militias for turf and political power rage. ...

"Libya teeters dangerously on the brink."

Now we see a push for intervention in Syria from Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman. That would make us allies of al-Qaida, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, all of which also seek the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the rise of a Sunni regime in Damascus.

But it is the clamor for a U.S. war on Iran that grows loudest.

But why, when the U.S. intelligence community still claims to have no hard evidence Iran has even decided to build a bomb?

Since Ronald Reagan went home, the United States has attacked or invaded Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq again, and Libya.

How have Americans benefited from all this war? How have the Chinese suffered these 20 years by not having been in on the action?


For What, All These Wars? | CNSNews.com

Churches torched, Christians murdered: Gingrich asks, Where’s our apology?

Posted February 29, 2012



The Blaze