President Obama is absolutely correct to apologize for the apparent Koran burning at the Bagram Air Base. (See Alana’s earlier post. ) The incident should not have happened. His apology shows goodwill which Afghans appear to accept. After all, in Kabul–a city of five million people–only 1,000 protesters took to the streets. That’s hardly respectable even for a rent-a-mob.
Still, Obama’s apology fumbles the opportunity to go on the offense. Incidents in which Americans desecrate the Koran–or any holy book–are few and far between and are punished. But, not so the Taliban. Every time the Taliban bomb a mosque–something they do with frequency when they disagree with those mosque’s traditional, moderate mullahs–they desecrate the Koran. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is two-faced in his refusal to hold the Taliban to account for their actions. Why Obama refuses to engage adeptly in the battle to win hearts and minds is a question which still stumps.
"Why Obama refuses to engage adeptly in the battle to win hearts and minds is a question which still stumps." n nLet's consider the possible answers to this alleged stumper: n(a) He is too stupid to know to do this. n(b) He knows he should do this, but for tactical reasons wants to do it differently. n(c) He actually is pretty smart and is doing exactly what he wants to do: abjectly apologize and take us down a notch as a country, while elevating himself above it. n nTake your pick Michael.
It's all nonsense. The burning of the koran was based on the fact that they were being used to pass messages from one jihadi to another; plus they were in dis-repair. n nThe fact that a US Army General, not to mention Hussein Obama, apologized for this action, after what we have done and suffered for Afghanistan, is shameful. n nInstead of engaging in nation buidling in Islamic countries, wouldn't a better strategy to reduce the threat of Islamic terror be to stop or at least restrict Muslim immigration into the USA? n n
Yes, while American soldiers are bleeding and dying in Afghanistan for no good reason, and Obama apologizes ONCE AGAIN for something where no apology is due, and meanwhile here in America we have this curious phenomenon of " sudden-jihad syndrome" where a Muslim will commit or attempt to commit a heinous act. Absurd. And yet every year more Muslims move to this country. We can expect more terroristic attacks inside this country just as surely as night follows day.
you can't be serious. as raymond says, above, the books were burned because terrorists were using them to pass messages. Obama was NOT right to apologize, especially in the groveling way we've come to expect from him. (does anyone ever do wrong besides America? and if we're so bad…why does he want to be our president again?) n nObama certainly knows that Bibles are burned all the time in Muslim countries. and in Iran they're getting ready to burn a human being: a Christian minister, who's being executed because he's an infidel. do you hear Obama talking about that? noooo…wouldn't want to upset our Iranian friends, would we?