US Official Visits Va. Mosque To Apologize For Koran Burning

A Defense Department official visited a Virginia mosque Friday to reiterate the White House's apologies for the burning of Korans at a US military base in Afghanistan, pledging that those responsible will be held "appropriately accountable."

Peter Lavoy, acting assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, attended services at the ADAMS Center in Sterling, Va., and told the congregation he was there to express his "sincere regret" on behalf of the Department of Defense for the incident.

On Monday, coalition forces at Bagram Air Field brought a truckload of Islamic holy books from a detention facility to an incinerator after the detainees allegedly used the texts to pass secrets and what were described as "extremist" messages to one another.

Afghans stepped in to rescue the books, though some were already burned. The incident, viewed as an affront to Muslims, sparked widespread protests, resulting in the deaths of 24 people in four days of violence. Two US troops were shot and killed by an Afghan soldier at a base in Nangarhar Province Thursday.

Lavoy said Friday that the holy books were burned "unknowingly and improperly" and that the military "neglected, out of ignorance, long-established, correct procedures for handling religious materials."

"I know that apologies are never enough and do not erase this incident," he said, adding, "We will hold people appropriately accountable."

He also noted that US commander Gen. John Allen apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and to the Afghan government and people, that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta apologized and pledged to personally review results of an investigation into the incident and that President Barack Obama wrote a letter of apology to Karzai that US Ambassador Ryan Crocker delivered by hand.

The string of apologies from the Obama administration has come under harsh criticism by Republicans. Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called the president's apology "an outrage" and a "destructive double standard," while Sarah Palin tweeted that the "US trained & protected Afghan Army can apologize for killing our soldiers yesterday."

US Military Burns Bibles but Condemns Burning Korans

Bible BurningIf reports are accurate, it looks like those who burned Korans that had been written in to deliver secret messages to other prisoners may have to stand trial. We’re not hearing anything about whether those who killed US troops over the affair will suffer a similar fate.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai had accused a United States officer of “ignorantly” burning copies of the Koran. As a result, rioters took to the streets. So far, 11 people, in addition to the two U.S. servicemen, have been killed.

Demonstrations have drawn thousands of angry Afghans to the streets, chanting “Death to America!”

“NATO officials, in response to a request for the trial and punishment of the perpetrators … promised this crime will brought to court as soon as possible,” Karzai’s office said in a statement.

President Barack Obama sent a letter to Karzai apologizing for the burning of the Korans, after Afghan laborers found charred copies while collecting rubbish at the Bagram Air Base.

I don’t know if the President has said anything about the deaths of two United States soldiers and he wants an apology from Afghan President Karzai. Apologies these days are mostly a one-way street. We’re doing all the apologizing.

Our government apologizes for burning a few Korans, and yet it burns thousands of Bibles at the same Bagram Air Force Base. Here’s a CNN story from 2009 that is not getting any media attention:

Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned, confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used to try to convert Afghans, a Defense Department spokesman said. The unsolicited Bibles sent by a church in the United States were confiscated . . . at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan because military rules forbid troops of any religion from proselytizing while deployed there, Lt. Col. Mark Wright said. . . .

“The decision was made that it was a ‘force protection’ measure to throw them away, because, if they did get out, it could be perceived by Afghans that the U.S. government or the U.S. military was trying to convert Muslims,” Wright told CNN on Tuesday.

Troops at posts in war zones are required to burn their trash, Wright said.

According to the military, the Bibles were “trash.”

The one thing that would help the blood-crazed Middle East, military rules say it must be destroyed. Is it any wonder that we are not making any progress as the body counts continues to mount? God is not mocked. We are trying to win a war with bullets, missiles, and drones instead of God’s Word. What’s worse, shooting bullets or dropping Bibles all over the Middle East?

On May 28th, 1849, Robert C. Winthrop (1809–1894), descendant of Governor John Winthrop, first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, addressed the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Bible Society in Boston, and said in part, “Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.”

http://godfatherpolitics.com/3872/us-military-burns-bibles-but-condemns-burning-korans/onet.”;

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