Truce Is Reached in Quran Drama

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 09-09-10 | JONATHAN WEISMAN, SHIRA OVIDE And TAMER EL-GHOBASHY

[GOP_Lady]

A Florida pastor backed away from plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11 after U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates phoned him, capping several surreal days of drama in which his plans ricocheted around the world, sowing anger among Muslims and concern at the Pentagon.

Mr. Gates's phone call, in which he warned Rev. Terry Jones that the planned event could imperil U.S. troops, came hours after President Barack Obama slammed Mr. Jones's plan as a "stunt" and "a recruitment bonanza for al Qaeda."

"Secretary Gates reached out to Pastor Jones this afternoon," a Pentagon official said. "They had a very brief phone conversation during which the Secretary expressed his grave concern" that the Quran-burning would put American forces at risk, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan. "He urged the Pastor not to proceed with it," the official said.

[Coldwater Creek]

It appears that Jones is rethinking calling off the burn event.

[Siena Dreaming]

Hey, we can’t bomb Berlin,

Bombing Berlin was strategically necessary to win the war.

I don't think 2 pastors burning a book is going to accomplish anything other than maybe inflaming some Iraqi's and Afgani's in areas where our soldiers have worked hard to build good relations with the townspeople.

[bergmeid]

Absolutely. Is he a radical jihadi or a stealth jihadi? (Monica Crowley terminology)

[Julia H.]

Hmm...bombing a big city, burning a book. Sounds like a solid analogy to me.

[bergmeid]

I want Bloomberg’s opinion now that we know what islam really wants.

[fabian]

Well, it is easy for you to say but you are not the one over there in the middle east that has to try and deal with these psycotic people who think their book is akin to God almighty!

[ResponseAbility]

****I encourage everybody to join me with burning ceremonies of their own.****

I want to see some creative youtube videos of koran burnings. Earlier I mentioned shooting a burning one from a cannon at the famous picture of the turban bomb mohammed. The mohammed picture should be big and soaked in flammable liquid for a really big show .

[bergmeid]

You’re right on the money. We need people to be educated about this cult. The sooner the better.

[roses of sharon]

Good grief...how embarrassing...really puts the lie to his “workplace violence” instead of terrorism report.

[ResponseAbility]

Well good. I hope they finally get tired of the islamic curse and deal with it now. Might as well be rid of it.

[dfwgator]

Hey, we can’t bomb Berlin, because that will make the Germans want to retaliate, and someone might get hurt.

Actually the Germans did retaliate by switching their bombings from military installations, to terror bombing London, a move which ultimately cost them the war, since it give relief to the military installations to make repairs.

[Mortrey]

I hope people across the Nation videotape burnings of the koran and put them on the web or youtube (although, youtube probably won’t post them).

I’m sick to death of this P.C. crap that makes us appear wusses...

If the mooselimbs are too thin-skinned for freedom, let them get the hell out of our country.

[GOP_Lady]

Now don’t get PLABy on us, roses.

[fabian]

Yes, a curse it is indeed. I think it is going to take Jesus coming back to do away that plagerized and wicked religion.

[freeandfreezing]

I don't think 2 pastors burning a book is going to accomplish anything other than maybe inflaming some Iraqi's and Afgani's in areas where our soldiers have worked hard to build good relations with the townspeople.

So should we stop doing anything that offends all the people in Iraq and Afghanistan? Like stop letting women go out of the house without covering themselves with veils? Or maybe we should just forbid all of our young women from going to college? And I guess we should all stop going to church too.

If we are going to start behaving in a way intended to appease the radical muslims of the world, what is the point of having any military anywhere in Iraq or Afghanistan? We might as well just say we're planning to adopt Sharia law here and get it over with.

Any even slightly educated person, muslim or not, knows that the actions of some wacky guy in Florida with a congregation of perhaps 50 people don't represent the beliefs of Americans. The people that will "believe" the propaganda made from whatever the guy in Florida does also believe every other bit of nonsensical propaganda produced by their radical leaders or posted on the internet.

It is ridiculous to shape our behavior in order to please or try to please people who fundamentally don't believe our way of life, or our beliefs are worthy of any respect. We should instead tell them that they can either choose to accept our way of life, and leave us alone, or suffer the consequences. Our military can deliver those consequences, and presumably many of those townspeople in Iraq and Afghanistan have seen that firsthand. I'm sure much more of their "friendship" comes from seeing what an A-10 or an Apache does than whatever they see on the news about our country.

[Joe 6-pack]

I was kind of ambivalent towards Pastor Jones...his links to Phelps make me kind of uncomfortable and question his motives, and while I thought the koran burning was kind of amusing, and would expose the muzzies for what they are, I also had to ask if it wasn't really much ado about nothing.

That ended yesterday, when General Petraeus and others at the highest level of the FedGov started trying to talk him out of it. Screw them. Burn, baby burn.

[roses of sharon]

I am sure I won’t since I haven’t a clue what that means.

[livius]

I wasn’t in favor of Jones’ action, but I think it really wouldn’t matter whether he burned the Koran or not because, as you say, Muslims were already angry and always will be angry. In fact, even if all the world were Muslim, they’d still be angry and they’d spend their time killing each other (as they do all the time even now).

It’s a cult based on anger, hatred, resentment and violence; it always has been and it always will be.

[Tex-Con-Man]

Can you imagine the Allies in World War II taking a similar line? Hey, we can’t bomb Berlin, because that will make the Germans want to retaliate, and someone might get hurt.

November 30, 1942 - Casablanca, North Africa

General Eisenhower, commander of US Army forces in North Africa, announced today that he condemns the plans of a midwest preacher back in the USA to burn a pile of Adolf Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" on December 7, 1942. The preacher claims he is doing such to remind Americans of the vicious sneak attack by Axis powers that occurred one year ago and as an expression of one of the Four Freedoms our military is fighting to defend. Also as a message to the NAZIs and other Axis powers of what Americans think about their ideology for world conquest.

At his headquarters, General Eisenhower stated that; "This is a foolhardy act that will have severe repurcussions to our men on the front lines. Showing such disrespect for the National Socialism ideology is likely to inflame the NAZI troopers in the Africa Korp in a way that will make them intensifiy their attacks against our men engaged in combat against them, causing an increase in American casualties. How can we expect to win this war if we insult the purpose and motivation of those we are fighting against."

It's just as stupid now as it was back then.

[fwdude]

The Muslim fanatics don't need an excuse to hate us and attack our troops; that attitude is firmly in place anyway. What was done before 9/11 to encourage that?

If we capitulate, it makes us look weak. And believe me, sharks move in on prey they perceive as weak.