WSJ: Patraeus Misfires of Quran Burning

[Chuckiechan]

Rabinowitz: Petraeus Misfires on Quran Burning - WSJ.com

So it would appear at least from the response by Gen. David Petraeus, who delivered an impassioned rebuke of a publicity-hungry Florida pastor who had presided over the mock trial and burning of a Quran on March 20. This act was, the general declared in a video statement over the weekend, "hateful, extremely disrespectful, and enormously intolerant." It had endangered American troops. He wanted, he announced, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.



No one listening could doubt it. The general would go on to say more, but nowhere in any of that condemnation was it possible to find a mention of the merciless savagery that had taken place in the name of devotion to God and the Quran. Mark Sedwill, the NATO senior civilian representative who joined Gen. Petraeus in the statement, did manage to find a moment to murmur in passing that, of course, condolences were due to "everyone who has been hurt in the demonstrations."


It's hard to conceive of a pronouncement richer in evasions of brutal reality than this one, with its references to people "hurt'' in "demonstrations." The participants in these "demonstrations"—a nice touch, that, suggestive of marchers, perhaps carrying placards—had in fact hunted down and killed, by shooting, stabbing and beating to death a total of 22 people by the end of the third day's expression of religious devotion.

The Religion of Peace and Murder just doesn't get it. They are not special even if they are crazy.

[JasmineTF]

There are over a billion Muslims worldwide. Out of that multitude of people, how many of them have exhibited "merciless savagery" or have ever even hurt a single individual in the name of their religion?

Publicly disrespecting their religion and burning their version of the bible would be like publicly disrespecting Christianity and burning the Bible because of the Inquisition, or because of a relative handful of fanatics who distort and pervert the religion. It's wrong, and no amount of rationalization will make it right.

That Florida "pastor" is not a Christian. He should read the Word in which he professes to believe. He might learn something.

[Beemer]

He very much is a Christian as being a Christian has always been up to the interpretation. As far as how many Muslims have hurt people, you do remember the Cartoon Capers not so long ago?

Religion deserves no special protection, only the individual’s right of conscience. The UN recently got this right.

What Jones did was wrong only because of the known dangers. He was told by many people what the outcome would be if he chose to do this. All the fears came true.

Bibles that were translated into middle-eastern language and sent over-seas through military transport were burned when found, Bible verses on rifle scopes which made it necessary to have the scopes removed and replaced were other actions by Christians not thinking of the repercussions or disregarding the possibilities and not to mention the many occurrences of witnessing by military personal to the natives in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are efforts in the Military to push what would appear as another Christian crusade in the middle-east putting soldiers lives at risk although the warnings have been made.

Yup! Jones is very much a Christian, just not the type of Christian you are aware of. Maybe you should go browse the MRFF web site for an eye opener.

[Chuckiechan]

To the people who were butchered, it doesn't matter how many Muslims there are.

Christian religions are "disrespected" all the time, and Christians are persecuted and murdered throughout the middle east. Because they aren't Jews, the MSM doesn't pay attention, lest they be accused of being "religious".

Bottom line: This is a free country, and to remain free we must not allow ourselves to be intimidated by Islam's lack of tolerance.

There will always we someone around to burn the next Quran, Bible, or American flag.

Get over it.

[Beemer]

As for the OP, Robinowitz is wrong if he thinks it's up to Petreaus to denounce the obvious unthinking brutality of the response. He was more concerned with putting out the fire that Jones had started. For Petreaus to denounce Islam for these actions would be like throwing gas on the fire already started. He would be fanning the flames just like Jones. Does Robinowitz want more deaths over this religious crap?

Another angle of how everyone should be looking at this stupidity is how Harry Reid and Lindsey Graham want some kind of hearing on Free Speech and why it is a bad idea to even contemplate such an idea.

Second, this event demonstrates one of the most uncounted (though one of the most intended) costs of our posture of Endless War: the way it is exploited to endlessly erode core liberties. The last decade's unrelenting (and still escalating) War on Terror -- i.e., war in multiple countries in the Muslim world -- has led to an erosion of virtually every basic civil liberty, including due process, Fourth Amendment protections, and habeas corpus. All wars have the same effect, as many of the most abusive assaults on core civil liberties in American history have been justified by appeal to war.

As Andrew Sullivan said of this episode: it's "a classic example of how warfare abroad can curtail liberties at home . . . we should also remember that this war has no end, and that therefore the liberties taken away by wartime are permanently taken away." In addition to the body count and the vast sums of money, this inevitable erosion of liberty from our continuous wars -- and the always escalating wall of secrecy that enables it -- must be counted when deciding whether to support them. Wars degrade a nation's character and the fabric of its political culture; Endless War has that effect exponentially.

The most uncounted cost of Endless War - Afghanistan - Salon.com