US troops could face disciplinary action over Qur'an burning in Afghanistan

the guardian ^ | 3/3/2012 | staff

[tobyhill]

At least five US military personnel could face a disciplinary review following the burning of copies of the Qur'an by American soldiers in Afghanistan.

A joint investigation by senior Afghan and US military officials has concluded that although mistakes were made when troops at Bagram airbase, near Kabul, had burned copies of the Qur'an and other religious literature along with piles of waste paper, there was no intent to desecrate the Islamic religious texts.

A western official said the investigation could lead to a disciplinary review of at least five US military personnel involved.

But a different panel appointed by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to investigate the incident, has concluded that the burning of the holy books was deliberate.

[twister881]

I’d pin a Bronze Star on each one of them for eliminating the how-to manual for a 7th Century death cult.

[rfreedom4u]

Every one of them should request a court martial by JURY. Not a damn one would be found guilty.

[Ken522]

Throw the UCMJ at ‘em - assign all of them to the Pentagon for 3 years!

[CORedneck]

BOHICA - Outstanding Leader is now going throw our troops under the bus ! What really p!$$es me off, no other country throws their soldiers under the bus. Time to throw these self hating American authority figures out ! It is also time to keep the media out off our military operations as well.

[fwdude]

Do they really want to see US riot now?!

This is insane!!!

[OrioleFan]

Biden will probably make a speech and name names. Then Obama will probably fly them out in a helicopter and pass along info to the taliban what the route and time of passage will be so they can shoot it down.

[Irenic]

I believe this is a bridge too far.

[elpadre]

this the stuff that could give rise to mutiny in the ranks should these soldiers stand trial of any sort. Send them home out of harms way and those remaining in war zones stand tall and act like American troops always have.

[bigheadfred]

WHY DON’T THEY START WITH THE TOP COMMAND WHOSE CAREERS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN STANDING UP TO THAT SON OF A BITCH IN THE white hut?

[I cannot think of a name]

“I’d pin a Bronze Star on each one of them for eliminating the how-to manual for a 7th Century death cult.”

Although I would give them a C- for planning, stealth, and execution. How can they not successfully get away with burning a few copies of some crapo book? When I think back to my time in the military and some of my shenanigans we pulled off right under the nose of the brass, sssssshh.

It leads me to believe these guys actually DID do this by accident. If they'd been doing it on purpose, any competent enlisted grunt should have been able to pull it off without getting caught!

[RoosterRedux]

Ridiculous!

These Korans had already been desecrated by the scribblings of Muslim prisoners.

Obama must be loving this...another opportunity for him to trash America.

[Travis McGee]

Why doesn't our PC military just turn them over to the Taliban for trial and punishment?

I am so sick of our PC-hamstrung military leadership I could scream!

[Travis McGee]

No different than transporting terrorists and bombs in a marked ambulance.

Or firing rockets from a mosque.

Once you do, you lose your protection.

[rbg81]

I think its unlikely that these personnel will be “officially” charged with anything. That being said, their military careers are probably toast anyway. At a minimum, a letter of reprimand will end up in their personnel records.

[Jeff Head]

More PC BS from this admin and those whom it has appointed. People down the line should be refusing to follow these insane orders should they come.

The prisoners desecrated thje Korans. They used what we should have never given them in the first place, to pass messages and make plans.

These prisoners are irregulars. They should be interrogated until we can get no more out of them, including the use of water boarding, and then summarily executed according to the Geneva convention.

That's how they should be handled and any contraband or any other rmaterial found on them out side of their US military issued clothing should be confiscated, looked at, and then burned.

Obama means to lose this war, and he means to take America down. That is and always has been his "fundmental change".

WHAT I WOULD DO AS PRESIDENT

[winner3000]

Is anyone going to face murder charges for murdering our troops? Since when a soldier’s life has become less precious than a hate-filled book?

[RoosterRedux]

Yep.

I think this whole matter is trumped up.

Just another case in which the enemy tries to probe our defenses, damage our morale, and confuse the clarity of our prosecution of this war.

[pepsionice]

It’s a layered screw-up. Some intelligence guys find coded messages in Qur’ans being handed around the prison. They confiscate the documents, and hand them to some superior officer. The officer reviews the case, and likely assigns his chief of staff the task of getting rid of the problem. This guy probably puts them into a box and sits on the issue for months, and then his replacement gets the box. The replacement guy probably doesn’t know anything, and just assigns Private Snuffy the job of burning the items (just like the fashion that we’d dispose of an old US flag). By the time you come to the end....it’s probably six to ten folks who had some part in this whole thing. Sadly, there’s probably not a single Army regulation that clearly says what to do with coded Qur’ans.

My advice in the future.....pack all these code Qur’ans up and ship them to the nuclear storage pit out in Nevada, and just let them sit 10k years until they dissolve. It’s best way to get rid of nuclear waste and coded Qur’ans.

[Travis McGee]

And the regime sides with the enemy. Always.