Burning Korans Fuel Fury of Bloody Clashes that Threatens US Servicemembers for Sixth Day.
So you’re in jail, right? And you ask yourself, “Self, how am I going to help my friends down the cell block organize for the big prison break scheduled the following day?” The answer is simple: write coded instructions in a Bible and pass it on to your neighbor, who reads it before passing it in turn on down the line until finally everyone in your cell block has read it and understands what needs to happen.
Cool huh? Only it’s not really the Christian holy texts we’re talking about here, it’s the Koran! And the jail is not some federal prison facility here in the United States. We’re in Kabul Afghanistan. And the prisoners are not your run of the mill criminals, they’re hardened killers of the Al Qaeda and the Taliban sort who are presently rotting away in their cells awaiting trials or already serving jail terms for their murderous mischief.
Climb aboard with me on the not-so-way-back-machine to six days ago when it was reported in the main stream media that our intrepid servicemembers in their callous disrespect of the Koran and the practitioners of the “religion of peace” burned Muslim holy texts in an act so grotesque it raised furor of outrage in the Muslim street and garnered a most humble apology from our president to theirs.
But in point of fact, what exactly are we apologizing for? As the results of a military investigation into the Koran burning incident continues, riotous violence continues for the sixth straight day making military and state department officials worry for the safety of their personnel stationed in that country. So far four have been killed, including two working in the very heart of the Interior Ministry in Kabul.
Spencer Ackerman explains the situation in his Feb. 26th article appearing in “The Danger Room”.
“Protests — some better called riots — have spread into their sixth day. Most shockingly, an Interior Ministry employee killed two U.S. servicemembers working in the ministry’s Kabul headquarters, reportedly by shooting them in the head on Saturday with a silencer-equipped pistol. Pentagon press secretary George Little called the killings “murder.”
“The killings prompted Gen. John Allen, commander of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, to pull all U.S. military advisers out of Afghan government ministries in Kabul as a protective measure. Allen’s subordinate commanders frequently tell reporters that U.S. and Afghan security forces work together intimately; the prompt removal of advisers indicates a distrust below the surface. Crocker told CNN on Sunday that he had issued a complementary order for U.S. diplomats.”
See Ackerman’s entire article at: https://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/02/koran-riots-afghanistan/.
Lower down in the article Ackerman explains that the scenario I began with may well have been exactly what happened before the murder rampage took place.
“Stories have spread throughout the Pentagon — though unconfirmed by any official — that the burning occurred after U.S. troops slated library material at the Parwan detention center for destruction, to prevent detainees from passing each other messages. Allegedly, troops did not realize Korans were included in that material.”
Ohhh! Thanks Spencer! Maybe you should have put that important nut graph higher in the story, huh?!
This writer has it on good authority from a source who works both in the military and in the field of corrections/law enforcement that this kind of scenario happens a lot and is the most likely explanation for recent events. Prisoners in US prisons constantly pass messages to one another using the pages of Bibles and Korans. Holy books are also popular with prisoners because they burn so well in home-made cigarettes the prisoners fashion for themselves.
So I repeat the question that begs asking, What are we apologizing for? Why do we constantly beat up on our loyal servicemembers who do their jobs without thanks in a country nobody cares about while everybody in the main stream media gives these people a pass every time they murder someone who has criticized their religion, burned a book, or drawn a cartoon?!
Four of our servicemembers are dead, their families in mourning. The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has the audacity to demand an apology from us. I think that he is the one to apologize. If he and his countrymen cannot appreciate the incredible lengths we as a nation have gone through to make that worthless country free then maybe it’s time we bring our troops home and let Afghanistan slip back down into the mire of the Muslim dark ages.