Posted on 02/21/2012 11:22:35 AM PST by ColdOne
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta issued an apology for "inappropriate treatment" of Islam's holy book at the base to try and contain fury over the incident - a public relations disaster for Washington as it tries to pacify the country ahead of the withdrawal of foreign troops in 2014.
Protesters started to gather after Afghan laborers found charred remains of copies of the Koran as they collected rubbish from Bagram airbase, the provincial governor's office said in a statement.
As many as 2,000 Afghans massed outside several gates to the base, the main center for NATO-led forces just north of the capital Kabul, chanting anti-foreigner slogans and throwing stones, said Reuters reporters at the scene.
Both Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban in Afghanistan condemned the incident, both of them saying the values of Islam had been "degraded."
Winning the hearts and minds of Afghans is critical to U.S. efforts to defeating the Taliban, but critics say Western forces often fail to grasp Afghanistan's religious and cultural sensitivities.
A senior U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said staff at Bagram had decided to remove "extremist literature" and other materials left in a library in the base's detention block.
"They (the materials) were taken out of the library for good reason but they were being disposed of in a bad way," the official said.
"There was a breakdown in judgment in this matter but there was no breakdown in our respect for Islam," the official added.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I wonder how many more days the Jihadis in the international press are going to run this story?
Where was the outrage when Bibles were burned and forbidden in Afghanistan? Our soldiers were denied their religious freedom. I’m sick of this kow-towing to the Muslims!
Does no one else ever apologize to us for being insensitive to our traditions?
“both of them saying the values of Islam had been “degraded.”
Brought to you by the department of redundancy department.
I have no respect for Islam. Let it be known that Panetta does NOT speak or me..f
(tumblindice press, story cont.) Realizing their error, a number of troops began urinating on the fire, compounding the anger of the muslim primates.
Ahhhhh.....the taliban doesn’t like this......Hey!......Ops Officers!......send out the patrols with a book called “KOREAN”....the dumb bastard taliban can’t read anyway......light it on fire.....set up fighting positions....shoot the assholes with guns who come to stomp out the fire.....Yes, I will take that medal.
That’s what I thought. This sounds like a set up to me.
ENOUGH!!
American Christians live daily with federally funded ‘Art’ which promotes urine-filled beakers holding crucifixes, with more and increasingly worse insults and defamation to religion and to believers .... Apologize to the Muslims? Really!!!???
YES! I do feel sorry for the Afgani women, but when their entire culture is that degraded and disrespectful to Americans, then our nation-building is a totally wasted effort. The blood of our soldiers spilled in their behalf is sacred to us, the stupid korans are not.
Our great soldiers have nothing to apologize for. They are trying to protect a barbarian culture that has no gratitude toward their sacrifices. Fie on their stupid, evil Koran!
“both of them saying the values of Islam had been “degraded.”
So how degrading is it , when they blow up a mosque, school or home and there happens to be a Koran inside . They like blowing up funerals. Do they have a Koran at a funeral?
Blowing up the Koran apparently is OK but , Ali Baba forbid , don’t set fire to it .
Whoever burned the Korans - I congratulate you! Your simple gesture has shown the truth, and laid bare the idiocy, fantasy and futility that is the US policy in Af-Pak regarding “nation building” and “moderate Islam.”
If such a thing causes instability, it only proves - there was no “stability” in the first place
Where's the outrage when Christians are burned in Egypt and Sudan?
Why don’t we kill these animals when they riot (should do this at home, too...)? They’d learn to behave. Eventually.
Not In My Name
The way to win wars is to bomb and burn whatever the enemy holds dear in order to make him surrender so that the bombing and burning will stop. Imagine if Harry Truman had apologized a la Leon Panetta after dropping the bomb on Hiroshima and promised never to do it again? We’d still be fighting World War II in the Pacific.
Whether Obama is a sissy or a Muslim sympathizer, he’s proven incapable of winning the Afghan War, and he should bring the troops home rather than force them to die carrying out his failed policies.
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