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ohioWfan, Gen. Petraeus is an honorable man.....I'm sure he is all for protecting our troops given the constraints of ROE's currently in play......but...... I question his tactics. Since I'm not in the military, my opinions may not matter much, but here there are.

A snippet from the WSJ, Inside the Massacre at Afghan Compound
Inside the building, other attackers targeted one of the safe rooms. The door proved little protection against the mob. As intruders penetrated the safe room, Pavel Ershov, a Russian diplomat who speaks fluent Dari sought to protect three staff members by distracting the assailants, the U.N.'s Mr. de Mistura said.

"Are you Muslim?" the assailants asked Mr. Ershov, according to one diplomat briefed on the attack. Mr. Ershov lied and said he was, the U.N. said. The assailants tested him by asking him to recite the traditional profession of belief in Islam, which begins, "There is no God but Allah."

When he successfully completed the test, his life was spared. Still, he was dragged into the street and beaten badly, according to a local shopkeeper who said he participated in the assault.

Gen. Petraeus has been trying to win the "hearts and minds" of Muslims for as long as I can remember in the ME. It makes sense on paper, it may work in certain instances where you take ground little by little with the local populace, fighting back the insurgents or Taliban. But, this little exchange provides a lot of insight into the Muslim mind.

Muslim? okay - you only get beaten if you work with the infidel. Not Muslim - you are dead, and deservedly so....the quran allows/encourages it.

Gen. Petraeus wants to protect his troops.....that is a given. Treating these Muslims like children who have "maybe understandable passions" is appeasement. It's one thing to appease(guide) a two year old after a tantrum, knowing that you're job is to help them mature, learn lessons, grow up, etc. These Muslims are very dangerous, killing machines, given enough ammunition (whether it's physical or mental "anguish")

There is only one way to stop them....no quarter for behavior like this. Fear begets respect. We ain't gonna win their hearts and minds with appeasment. We encourage more irrational behavior by excusing the original irrational behavior, and we give them more time to breed younger Muslims in the ways of the quran.

We can keep going down the road we've traveled, or we can try a new one. Their reaction to the Jones' "book-burning" incident is a perfect opportunity to try a new route. Instead, we are continuing to appease, and make excuses for their intolerable behavior.

xzins, your statement, Whether Jones is Obama’s new playmate is irrelevant to whether we should give in to bullies. We shouldn’t. Ever. - is spot on. (and much more succinct than my blather!)

While I understand the points you are making regarding your opinion that winning hearts and minds is a bad idea, I respectfully disagree - and that I believe is where I differ from some on this board.

I don't see Muslims as monolithic (and I know I will be skewered for that statement). While there are many who are monsters, and their religion is violent if followed as many follow it, I do not believe that all Muslims are evil and not worth the bother.

At the heart of my view is my faith in God, and who He is as loving Creator, and that people in the ME were created by Him with a need for Jesus as Savior, just as we were.

Without giving details, my veteran son was part of the 'hearts and minds' campaign and his experience, even in the belly of the beast in East Baghdad does not support that Muslims are monolithic and evil (and he was being mortared and shot at by the worst of them).

What our military has done under Petraeus, while being far from universally successful has made an enormous difference in Iraq. It has worked.

There are a number of Muslims who are monstrous, and it is they whom we must destroy. There is another group who have been manipulated, wittingly or unwittingly, by evil people, and they must be stopped. But there are also a number of Muslims who need to be rescued from the oppression of evil leaders and a screwed up religion.

It is a messy, complicated situation, and people like this ninny Jones has at best done nothing worthwhile, and at worst has willingly aggravated the situation and put our troops at further risk as a result.

Petraeus was RIGHT to chastise him for his reckless, thoughtless, self-absorbed behavior.

btw, what do you think about Beck's thoughts on the subject and the Soros/Obama/Jones inflammation of the ME?

Oh..........and I strongly agree that we should never give in to bullies.

That's not what Petraeus is doing here.

We can keep going down the road we've traveled, or we can try a new one. Their reaction to the Jones' "book-burning" incident is a perfect opportunity to try a new route. Instead, we are continuing to appease, and make excuses for their intolerable behavior.

Appeasement didn't work in preventing WWII, Girlene, and it won't work with the jihadists.