Posted on 07/22/2008 11:19:24 PM PDT by Crush
I missed this one. In May, the military had an “apology ceremony” after a soldier allegedly used the Qur’an as target practice. Now before I get going, it was definitely a stupid thing to do. I want to make that clear. The soldier says that he didn’t know it was the Qur’an, and that is entirely possible (the art of deception has long been mastered by our enemies, plus they have the assistance of our own media – think Haditha and the Qur’an flushing hoaxes). Whatever the case, he has been sent back to the States.
The Commander of U.S. Forces in Baghdad, Major General Jeffery Hammond, held a conference for an audience of tribal leaders, dignitaries and local security officials. An apology from the soldier was read. Gen. Hammond also offered his own apology. But, in what must have been the high point of the event, a U.S. military official kissed a Qur’an and offered the “humble gift” to the tribal leaders.
You have got to be kidding me! What effect does this have on our enemies, or even our own soldiers, when our military commanders are begging forgiveness? Is this something that George Patton or Chesty Puller would do? Shoot no – it shows weakness and actually emboldens our enemy. Slap him with a reprimand, bust him down a rank, give him latrine duty. This is a war, and bad things happen in war. Perhaps this soldier was twisted. But I am willing to give our troops the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he had seen too much, and was tired of certain members of the “religion of peace” doing everything in their power to kill (ours or theirs – both advance their cause), while his side was so deeply saturated in political correctness that it was willing to embarrass themselves and make a mockery of the armed forces.
Sheikh Hamadi al-Qirtani, who spoke on behalf of the tribal sheiks, called the incident “aggression against the entire Islamic world.” I guess the kiss wasn’t enough.
Militant Islam holds their holy sites and books in pretty high regard (except when Mosques serve as bunkers and caches, or when they blow them up themselves in order to blame the attack on the U.S.). But did they show any concern when the collapse of the South Tower destroyed the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on 9/11? To the best of my knowledge, we haven’t seen any “humble gifts” from their side.
Over here, we lose sleep over belly slaps and water boarding. Our Supreme Court has even bestowed Constitutional rights to our prisoners in GITMO while their prisoners endure untold horrors and beheadings. Apparently that doesn’t rate an “apology ceremony” either.
I won’t be holding my breath.
Perhaps the Army Center for Lessons Learned could devote some time towards analyzing the effect of the “apology ceremony.” But I bet we get the same result that we would have if we simply said “Nuts.”
He has to say he’s sorry for wasting a bullet?
We need the cooperation from the citizens and tribal leaders. I reject the Quran and it’s teachings, but we have to win this war as smoothely as possible. I therefore see nothing wrong in avoiding uneccessairy confrontation with the locals. The US Military acted correctly, though we sure as heck don’t like the symbolism.
I almost agree with you, SolidWood. The military did need to distance themselves from the incident, but kissing the Qur’an makes me sick. And we are in the business of winning the hearts and minds, but I illustrate that there is not a lot of room to win hearts and minds. I am tired of walking on eggshells while they run roughshod over our laws and freedoms. I say it’s high time to show the bad guys we aren’t a paper tiger any more. They think we are, and I would say that there is a lot of truth to that after our history of kit-glove response to Islamic terror that includes several presidential administrations, and then this “apology ceremony.”
No more weenie crap like this, let’s get kick some real ___ and get out of there. We are Americans, and we like our wars to last about as long as a World Series.
Plus think about this: we have had several hundred thousand American troops rotate in and out of Iraq, yet there are only a handful of “factual” incidents like this one (and I would like to see the proof myself). That’s something to be proud of, considering the lack of morals and judgment of other nations’ militaries. The worst, I would argue, being the UN “peacekeepers.”
We should remind them who won the war.
We can only cement our victory with the support of the locals (whose cooperation is part of the success). Needless confrontations because of such incidents are counterproductive. We have more pressing concerns than poking with sticks into their eyes. Again, I detest the symbolism, but the US military reacted correctly.
No, Patton probably would have shot the joker using the Koran as a target. There's no need to senselessly piss off the locals; especially when we're trying to get them to kill our enemies.
PC ridiculousness is one thing over here, but really we’re in a hearts and minds phase in the region at this point. Let’s focus on shooting bad guys.
We both know that we haven’t won yet. And when we do, Congress can still pull defeat from the jaws of victory, like they did in Vietnam. But we WILL win if we can keep Washington out of it. God Bless our troops, because thanks to them, we are still in it despite a miserable strategy by the Bush Administration after the fall of Baghdad (until the change of strategy that accompanied the Surge), and a treasonous Congress.
But Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat Party want us and the Iraqis believe that it was the Iranians who got them there. I wondered how they would get away from non-stop defeat coming from their party. This way they were right all along: only thing saving us was the Iranians bailing us out, right?
Pelosi: “And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians-they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.”
The Iraqis, and especially the Sunnis in Anbar know what saved them and won’t buy into any pro-Iranian fantasy. They are under no illusions that nothing but the Awakening in concert with the Surge got them were they are. Afterall it was themselves participating in it.
I don’t know, after reading Patton’s speech to the Third Army(http://www.crushingchris.com/library/patton_speech.htm), I would argue otherwise. But really, who are either of us to say what Patton would do. He was a real gunslinger, and I say would never have been a COIN type like Gen. Petraeus.
I would have chewed his ___ royally, given him latrine duty, and then asked the soldier (he was a sniper) at what range he engaged the Qur’an. “Next time drop a tango, instead of a book, okay?”
Agreed - the result of an effective counterinsurgency. I love it when a plan comes together. Meanwhile, the left is back at the drawing board. Or are they?
Wrong approach, they should have announced that there would be a Quran in every latreen for use as toilet paper.
That goes too far! The soldier should have only been reprimanded for wasting a bullet and good toilet paper.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.