Burning Words

A few weeks ago I wrote about how America need not apologize for its treatment of dead enemy soldiers.  Turns out that small furor was nothing compared to our latest request to apologize.

This week in Afghanistan, some NATO troops accidentally burned some copies of the Quran.  Apparently this is a serious no-no in Islam, burning former trees that have taken the shape of the word of Allah.  It may shock some that this act resulted in massive demonstrations there, with many people killed including two Americans, but read this and you won't be that surprised.

With all due respect to the beliefs of another religion, this really is an outrage - to humanity.  Equating a bound compilation of wood products that was put together in some print shop (maybe in China?) with something so sacred that human violence and death is wished upon its (accidental) desecration?  This is taking the concept that Christians might call 'Word Made Flesh' to a whole different level.

To add injury to insult, President Obama apologized on behalf of America.  He called the act "inadvertent," and said, "We will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, including holding accountable those responsible."

OK, I'm sure at some level we had to do this to try to save other lives - presumably American lives.  But damn him for making me agree with this reply from none other than Newt Gingrich: "The president apologized for the burning, but I haven't seen the president demand that the government of Afghanistan apologize for the killing of two Americans."

Of course, the Taliban rejected the apology anyway.  They called on Afghans to take revenge, saying, "We should attack their military bases, their military convoys, we should kill their soldiers, arrest their invading soldiers, beat them up and give a kind of lesson to them that they never dare to insult the holy Quran."

Clearly, it's less offensive to some Muslims to kill people than it is to burn a Quran.

I suppose all religions have doctrines that don't make sense.  Regardless, if any belief or act can be justified in the name of a religion (be it Islam or Christianity or anything else) you don't have a religion, you have a cult.  That's something we'd all be better off without.

Piss On The Taliban

This one is for all the bleeding hearts out there who are outraged (outraged, I tell you!) over the just-released video showing a U.S. Marine sniper team urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan.

Are you kidding me!?  The only outrage in this whole thing should be directed at the namby-pamby civilian and military personnel who are making the dead people the victims, and the U.S. troops the enemy.

This is not torture.  This is not Abu Ghraib.  This is a group of Marines who are probably damn tired of being away from their families in godforsaken country full of people trying to kill them (possibly including the pissees), and who want to exact a little bit of mental revenge.

Is this really so hard for us to accept?  I can imagine it now, one of these Marines says, "Screw this place.  These people are trying to kill us, and nobody at home gives a damn because they're too busy trying to decide whether to buy the 'grande' or the 'venti' today.  We got them before they got us, and since there won't be any parades, let's celebrate our victory by pissing on them!"  And the other Marines say, "Hell yes!  Great idea!"  And finally one of the dumber Marines says, "Yeah, and let's put it on video so we can show everybody back home some day!"

I get that the U.S. / Obama administration has to officially condemn this conduct.  We don't want to come off looking like barbarians.  The thing of it is, the Taliban and other radical Islamic terrorist group are going to think that about Americans regardless of what we do.  They would kill us in a second if given the chance, no questions asked.

What I don't need to hear are any religious scholars out there suggesting that somehow the U.S. is desecrating Islam.  Does anyone really believe these Marines were urinating on these people as a symbol of their hatred for Muslims?  Of course not, they couldn't care less about their religious beliefs.  The Marines are simply showing their disrespect for some people who probably just tried to kill them.

This is war.  There are no rules in war, at least not in combat.  Did we follow any rules when we captured/killed Bin Laden?  If there were rules, the U.S. would surely lose the so-called war on terror, because the enemy sure as hell isn't following them.

I hope the way this plays out is, soon there will be a groundswell of support for these Marines.  Most Americans are going to see through the pious rhetoric and realize that no one was actually harmed in the shooting of this video - although someone was clearly harmed beforehand.  And piss on them!