Spare Us...

Death and injury toll from the Koran burning incident: 4 dead, 7 wounded. Death and injury toll from a similar 2009 Bible burning: 0.
Apologies from our President: 1.
Apologies from the Afghan President: 0.


I was trying to illustrate the contrast between the two religions in terms of response. The Christians were upset and let it be known, however there was no violence that erupted. The Afghans created total chaos and killed 4 people. It was our personnel who burned the Bibles, Dan, and I get the occupation part, but the burning was "inadvertent" and the President said as much. So where is the restraint and apology that should have come from President Karzai?


Andy, pray tell. Please enlighten us with your view of the whole sordid mess which is the history of the American interaction with Muslims in the Middle East and the US since 9-11. Of course the reaction is an overeaction. The way I hear it, the Muslims who wrote in the holy book were in fact desecrating it according to thier Muslim faith. But when you enlighten us, please also equalize the playing field of American soldiers peeing on dead Taliban, dehumanizing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, murdering innocents, massacring two dozen civillians in Haditha. Tell us again how we needed to dehumanize the prisoners and ourselves under the flow of water on the boards of Gitmo so we could save our country  and our democracy. Tell us, oh wise one, that these crimes don't matter. Share with us the splendid, and no doubt uplifting underlying rationale that make "us" better" than "them". Help us to remember that those Americans who perpetuated those hideous crimes are not representative of us as a people while you paint others with the broadest of brushes. Tell us again that sleepy time story with the enduring moral that says we ought not place ouselves and our sins above those of others. Look, man this is an ugly f***ing mess. Spare us...

Mike, you had it right almost from the beginning. The reaction was an overreaction. I wasn't making any kind of point about Abu Ghraib or any of the other atrocities/incidents (alleged or not) that our troops were involved in. (Some of that... is unsubstantiated, though there have been innocents that have been killed as a result of actions, granted.) BUT, since you brought it up, what about the 9/11 attacks themselves? The Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan, the Al Quaeda training camps there, that then Senator Obama and other lawmakers had favored going into Afghanistan rather than Iraq just after 9/11. It is an ugly mess, and all I'm saying is that if we're apologizing, I think the Afghanis owe us one for this "overreaction."

 

There is not  one "atrocity" to use your word mentioned in that post that is not proven. I defy you to tell me which exactly is. These are not  generalities (something you know alot about), these are facts. Since you chose to ignore the gist of my post, answer me this: Do you think the Safa Younis Salim, a 13 year old girl who hid under her dead brother's body to avoid near certain death at the hands of an American solider, feels better or worse te mother and father of Lisa and Samantha Egan who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. I know you see yourself as some sport of a post political on-the-one-hand, but then on-the-other-hand sort of guy, but equivocating in matters of life and eath is more than worng, it is a desecration of the deceased. Those that look at 9-11 as an excuse for almost everything that has happened since are a pimary cause for the loss of life and trasure since. In general America would be far better off with a much more limited tolerance for violence, both ours AND others.