Afghan Koran 'burning': US apologises

[Frank]

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has apologised to the Afghan people for an incident in which copies of the Koran were reportedly burned.

Mr Panetta said the US military respected the religious practices of the Afghan people "without exception".

The Nato commander in Afghanistan, US Gen John R Allen, has already announced an inquiry into the incident.

Reports suggest the US had confiscated materials that they suspected Taliban prisoners were using to send messages.

News of the incident has triggered angry protests outside the US base at Bagram, north of Kabul.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17116595

Oh well another battalion of Taliban fighters has been recruited. I mean just how dumb do you have to be to think burning Korans in Afghanistan wouldn't have repercussions?

I heard the Generals grovelling, and that's the only word for it, apology on the radio. He really kissed ass and I'm sure whoever did this is going to get their ass severly kicked. Wouldn't surprise me if it turns out to be one of those god botherers that appear to be lowering the IQ of the US army these days.

[Dante]

Oh well another battalion of Taliban fighters has been recruited. I mean just how dumb do you have to be to think burning Korans in Afghanistan wouldn't have repercussions?
<snip>
 Wouldn't surprise me if it turns out to be one of those god botherers that appear to be lowering the IQ of the US army these days.

And why wouldn't one of those godbotherers want to increase tensions? To increase the chance for repercussions? After all, all they really want is to experience the "end days" anyway.

My fear is one day soon, we may get there.

[Nick]

Bring our people home.

[atheola]

They disrespect others to the extreme..and have some moronic ideas of a "holy war" beat into them by their dear pastors.. Personally I think they should be tried for treasonous acts.

[Frank]

Seven dead so far.

REPORTING FROM KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- Anti-American protests flared for a second day Wednesday over the inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran by U.S. personnel at a military base north of Kabul, and at least seven people were killed in the ongoing violence, Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said.

U.S. officials worked to contain the damaging fallout from the incident, which came at a difficult and delicate juncture of the decade-old war.

In demonstrations that spread to several locales across the country, hundreds of Afghans burned tires, threw stones and chanted "Death to America!" Foreign embassies and organizations urged Westerners in the capital and elsewhere to keep a low profile.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/02/afghanistan-koran-burning-protests-seven-die.html

Apparently it's retraining all round.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/02/after-koran-burning-military-in-afghanistan-to-be-trained-on-handling-texts.html

[Nick]

Damn there we are apologizing again.  Bet Obama put them up to it.  He want to apologize for this "exceptional" country all the time.  And what have we done that is so bad?  OK, so we peed on dead people, burned their holy book, tortured some of them in prisons in Iraq and in Gitmo, and oh yeah...experimented on some people in South America by giving them sexually transmitted diseases.  We are "exceptional". We don't apologize to anybody.

[screwtape]

I'm torn. 

On the one hand, the afghans should stfu.  It's a book.  Burning it or whatever harms no one.  If it was used as toilet paper and no one found out, it would have affected nothing.  It is only their stupid superstitious beliefs that are offended.  So I say, mount up a few .50 cals and shoot the protestors, the goddamn savages.

On the other hand, I understand their stupid, ass-backward culture, the mission and how this undermines it.  I don't understand how, after being in that shitty country for 10 years, our people are still that stupid.  They should be shot just for being that dumb.

[jedweber]

A few weeks ago Rolling Stone and the New York Times covered a report by a 17-year Army veteran who served there and claims that the war is going really badly and that the military brass has been deceiving the American people for years:

The Afghanistan Report the Pentagon Doesn't Want You to Read
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/the-afghanistan-report-the-pentagon-doesnt-want-you-to-read-20120210#ixzz1nDkvdr2A

I can't see any good way out of this mess. It's time to cut our losses and go.

[Frank]

  I don't understand how, after being in that shitty country for 10 years, our people are still that stupid.  They should be shot just for being that dumb.

Well apparently two of them have been.

REPORTING FROM KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- A man in an Afghan army uniform shot and killed two U.S.  troops Thursday and then fled into a crowd of anti-American demonstrators outside their base, Afghan officials said.
 
The NATO force confirmed that two of its service members had been slain in eastern Afghanistan, without disclosing their nationalities or providing details about the circumstances.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/02/two-americans-slain-afghanistan.html

[rev45]

We are "exceptional". We don't apologize to anybody.

Damn right.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/gingrich-blasts-obama-apology-karzai-230630584.html

Keep talking Gingrich.  You keep giving me more reasons to never vote for you.  Or respect you as a human being.

[Historicity]

A Koran can scare Dracula.

Really.  There was a Turkish movie of Bram Stoker's story made in the 1930s with the same plot of a solicitor from the civilized capital city goes to Transylvania to negotiate a real estate deal with Count Dracula.  When Dracula moves to the capital city they find he is a vampire and chase him back to Transylvania and kill him.  But in the Turkish film Dracula is not frightened by the sign of the Cross.

So don't burn your old Korans!!!!

[HAL]

Does it actually state in the Koran, that you cannot burn it? Where does this prohibition come from?

[screwtape]

^^ I was thinking that very same thought this morning. There was no Koran in mohammy's life time. It was assembled after he died.

Shortly after Muhammad's death the Quran was compiled into a single book...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koran

 So it couldn't say "don't burn me!" It must be some cultural taboo that grew up around the cult of mohammy, whereby everything he said and did was deemed to be "totally rad".

Most Muslims treat paper copies of the Quran with veneration...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koran#Culture

[Babdah]

 I wonder how they would react if they burn a bible in retaliation.

[Nick]

Maybe if we put up a statue of Moham they will be satisfied.

[joebbowers]

I vote we burn more Korans, publically. Get them really riled up so they show their true colors. When their true nature reveals itself perhaps we can finally convince the world that the best way to purge a hornet's nest is with fire.

Just nuke the whole fucking middle east. There's nothing of value there.

[rev45]

Just nuke the whole fucking middle east. There's nothing of value there.

Well there is oil.  It's over $100 a barrel right now. 

[One Above All]

Just nuke the whole fucking middle east. There's nothing of value there.

People are worthless, right?

[joebbowers]

Well there is oil.  It's over $100 a barrel right now. 

Meh. We should all be riding bikes anyway.

People are worthless, right?

I don't believe that every human life has worth. Just because some camel rapist manages to spew his seed into a whore and gets her pregnant, with her 10th child that she can not feed or support, does not mean that I feel obligated to step in and care for that kid. Particularly if that kid grows up, grabs a gun and tries to kill my kids.

I know that not every muslim is a terrorist, but most terrorists are muslims, and the majority of those that aren't support those that are, directly or indirectly. We as a species would be better off without the middle east.

[jaimehlers]

I don't believe that every human life has worth. Just because some camel rapist manages to spew his seed into a whore and gets her pregnant, with her 10th child that she can not feed or support, does not mean that I feel obligated to step in and care for that kid. Particularly if that kid grows up, grabs a gun and tries to kill my kids.

Oh?  So if by stepping in and caring for that kid, you kept him from wanting to grab a gun and trying to kill your children, you could short-circuit the whole process, that wouldn't matter?  Easier just to nuke them all and create a final solution to the problem, huh?  That's what you're advocating.

I know that not every muslim is a terrorist, but most terrorists are muslims, and the majority of those that aren't support those that are, directly or indirectly. We as a species would be better off without the middle east.

As a species, we would also be better off without those who think the only solution to this sort of thing is to kill everyone on the other side and sow the ground with salt (which doesn't mean I think that they deserve to die).  That sort of thing won't work, even leaving aside the ethical aspects; there are too many Muslims not in the Middle East, and this would absolutely guarantee that a huge percentage of the world's population, such as India and China, would start looking at ways to make sure we couldn't "conveniently" decide to do the same to them.

[screwtape]

good point jaime.  Until we have a solid, actionable plan to take out India and China, we should hold off on the middle east.

[One Above All]

good point jaime.  Until we have a solid, actionable plan to take out India and China, we should hold off on the middle east.

...screwtape, I'm pretty sure jaimehlers was just using joebbowers's own logic against him; sort of a "Devil's Advocate" thing.

[HAL]

I think I asked this once somewhere, but could you burn a virtual Koran. Suppose you had a website with a 3D/software generated Koran. Suppose further that it contained all the text of an actual Koran, so for all intents and purposes it's a functional Koran, and then had it in a simulated fire. Is that OK?

[joebbowers]

I know it won't happen, I am simply saying I wish it would. If I had the power, and all the blame would rest with me personally, I would destroy the middle east. And China and India for that matter, and most of Asia, Africa, South America, Mexico, big parts of the US, and most of Europe. Mostly to rid the world of religion, or cultures that I consider to be broken and unfixable. Good thing I'm not God, right?

By the way, I live in China, and I hate these people, haha. This is where most people ask me why I stay. Yellow fever baby, yellow fever. White chicks don't do it for me like a fine Asian lass.

[screwtape]

No, he was making a point about consequences, which is really a point about strategy.  If we wipe out one group of people, others will be concerned they will also be treated thusly.  This is why Iran might be pursuing nuclear weapons.  They saw us invade Iraq.  If they had nukes, it would deter such an invasion.

So the take-away from his excellent point is kill the Chinese first.  Let's face it, there are too many of them and they treat their own people like meat anyway.  Take them down to about 50 million and the world ecosphere will be grateful.  And the Indians will be a push over.  They are skinny and cannot even manage garbage collection in their own country.  I cannot imagine they could execute any kind of respectable war.  They have had 4 wars with pakistan - a country whom they outnumber by a factor of 8-10 - and only had one decisive victory.  Once the Chinese are out of the way, it's a clear path through the middle east, provided it is divvied up with Russia and Europe. 

I might make one suggestion - spare the hot chicks. China and the ME have an abundance of hot chicks.  I'd like to have a few for myself.

[One Above All]

No, he was making a point about consequences, which is really a point about strategy.
<snip>

I said "pretty sure". Neither of us can be certain of what he meant until he explains it.

I might make one suggestion - spare the hot chicks. China and the ME have an abundance of hot chicks.  I'd like to have a few for myself.

Spare the hot guys too. Some of us like guys as well as/or girls.

[One Above All]

<snip>

So, if someone doesn't agree with you, kill them. Reminds me of something else another group of people did...

[Mr. Blackwell]

I know it won't happen, I am simply saying I wish it would. If I had the power, and all the blame would rest with me personally, I would destroy the middle east. And China and India for that matter, and most of Asia, Africa, South America, Mexico, big parts of the US, and most of Europe. Mostly to rid the world of religion, or cultures that I consider to be broken and unfixable. Good thing I'm not God, right?

By the way, I live in China, and I hate these people, haha. This is where most people ask me why I stay. Yellow fever baby, yellow fever. White chicks don't do it for me like a fine Asian lass.

Thank you for sending a Cindi Lauper song into my addled brain. I am curious why you vehemently denied any hint of violence at the beginning of your time here at WWGHA. You actually tried to make it seem like I was a paranoid nut job for seeing something that "wasn't" there.

Do you remember?

SPAJ again Jay. You really must stop injecting your personal opinions into my words. If you want to know what my words meant, perhaps you could begin by reading my words.

I am glad to see that you feel comfortable enough to be honest with us about your true colors.

[HAL]

I know how to fix the situation.

Figure out how many Korans were burned, and then we have to then burn the same amount of Bibles. Once both deities and nutter groups (Xians and Muslims) are fully pissed, everything is equal.