The "sensitive" insurgent/anti-American middle easterner.

[SoCalDem]

Ido NOT condone the "flush the Koran" interrogation technique, but I AM having a little bit of irritation at how this "dastardly deed" is being seen as the worst possible thing that ever happened.

The people who film a beheading, after having the person on tv, practically daily ...begging for his/her life...cannot really hope to gain much sympathy over their "sensitivities" to a pile of pages..

This "outrage" they are professing is very similar to the faux outrage that the right wingers here (and other places) love to stir up.. Abortion..flag burning.. filibuster..Social security..immigration...civil rights...gay rights...etc etc..

The ones waving the signs, and screaming could be mistaken for just about any right wing protest group here...on their way to shoot a doctor or burn a clinic...or a cross...or an unsuspecting gay person..

...........

Which was the bigger outrage during WWII.. incinerating Jewish/Catholic/Gypsy PEOPLE, or confiscating and destroying their religious papers, books, icons??

If we HAVE to accept this evil undertaking as a "war", then I would actually prefer MY country to have these "sensitivity issues" discussed and planned out.. BEHIND CLOSED DOORS..with the ones who "need to know".. (I AM NOT CONDONING TORTURE)..

The "airing to the world" of our weakness and hesitancy, cannot be "helpful" (to quote Rumsfeld)..

What we need here is context.. and some real grownups in charge of information dissemination.

[Teaser]

1. There is a difference between

effective and smart.

[OneAngryDemocrat]

2. Gimme Liberty, or Gimmee...

If "airing to the world" of our weakness and hesitancy, isn't "helpful" (to quote Rumsfeld), then how do you suggest we address those issues?

If we can't adress this in an open forum, then America has already lost this "war".

We, the People, tell the military what to do, not the other way around.

If we are not informed by our government, then just how do you suggest we tell them what to do?

If the gov't is not serving OUR interests, then they are serving someone else's.

And if "airing to the world" of our weakness and hesitancy isn't in our interests, it would only be because we have ceded our liberty for a small measure security - a state which can NOT be tolerated.

[SoCalDem]

3. What I am objecting to is the foolish way the aftermath of the story

is being handled by the DC Bumblers..

A simple response of.. we are verifying the story..no comment.. would have been better than all the dancing around.. It MAKES us look weak..like no one knows what anyone else is even doing..

A one day story is now a major issue.. The Koran story was first mentioned 2 YEARS ago.. Newsweek did NOT break the story:(

A good government does not run to a microphone every time they have a bone to pick with someone who wrote an article.. It makes us look petty and ignorant..especially since the WH vetted the TEN sentences in the article that has everyone so upset..

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

4. this is a strange team spirit we have going here--empathy is key here

edited for spelling*

Many, especially "Kristchens" may find it hard to fathom the idea that some other cultures actually participate DAILY in their "faith"
and take things much more seriously when it comes to worship.

I think X-tians are about the ONLY ones who DON'T(in fact I think they ARE the only Major religion --Judaism incorporates daily ritual within the more serious sects)--the many branches of each of the following-Islam, the Hindus, the Buddhists, the Sikhs, and more--They aLL incorporate "God" in their daily routines--for at least an hour-- maybe four hours a day.

They're not like us who set aside one day a week--These other cultures do their deal DAILY
.
Most religions involve waking up well before dawn on a daily basis to practices everything from prayers to songs and mantras, yoga, and other devout rituals.
It is a SERIOUS commitment unlike the Western style indulgent recklessness banking on forgiveness.
These guys have SO much faith --
Desecrate their faith as part of the routine for "detainees"(POW's without Geneva rights), get exposed in the media, and you "clue in" the masses that this is what Americans will do to ALL MUSLIMS should they ever invade their countries--and they may be correct--conversion is part of Christian Fundamentalism.
Now, -- the Islamic people catch wind that fellow Muslims are imprisoned, being tortured, killed in Gitmo, Iraq, being shipped to be tortured in other foreign countries like Uzbekistan, and that the Conquerers even desecrate the ONLY thing those who are imprisoned have in the world (their religious faith) and you get angry mobs--
Mobs by the way that will never ever allow themselves to be dominated-


Us Western people think "hey, so what" --flushed a book (a false bible at that)-

Little do they know--

[PsychoDad]

5. Don't fell sorry for the radicals...

But do try and sympathize with the other 1.9 billion.

I may have an answer as to why the Quran desecration was the spark that ignited this. The torture or death of someone else, from somewhere else is an abstraction for most. It matters, but it's someone you don't know, from somewhere you don't know... might be upsetting, but it's not enough to take off from work and protest each time it happens. Witness right here in America, nearly 1700 of our own dead and hardly a simper from the press, much less demonstrations each time another life is lost, even if it's an american life, which "we" seem to hold more sacred than any other.

OTOH, if you are Muslim, the Quran is something that you can personally relate to. You have at least one copy in the house, have memorized at least Sura Fathia and perhaps some other chapters which you recite 5 times a day during prayers. Yes, it is a book, but to you this book represents the literal words of your creator and cherisher, as dictated to the prophet Muhammad 1400 years ago.

The Quran is also "yours".. not an abstract concept but something you can hold and relate to. Something you have an intimate knowledge of.

Much in the same way the pain of any child is tragic, but even moreso when that child is yours.

No, it's not that human life is worth less, and I believe the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) would have agreed, but when you live in a world where there have been hundreds of thousands killed, and you hear of more everyday, those lives become statistics, not faces... It's not that we can't feel compassion, it's that the human psyche has a hard time dealing with the abstraction of death at such a scale.

But this book brings this whole war home to Muslims in a way little else can.

peace

[sweetheart]

6. Oh be careful of the stereotype and the broad brush

Members of an invading army have been summarily executed, like so many
thousands of iraqi civilians, and it seems both sides (the US more so),
intend to murder. So, in the midst of a criminal invasion, and a
civil war against colonialism, all things are war.

The surface value is all that matters. The US deliberately tortures and
shits on the koran, making it public, to rub their noses in it. It is
part of the propaganda effort in their crusade to dehumanize islam
and its people.

And it is working. The agitation is creating an enemy that will fight
long after this iraq invasion is history, a creeping war of civilizations, one that, over time, cannot but develop in to a proper
cold war, hot in parts, and one where, short of mass extermination
of a billion people, there is no solution but to make nice and leave.

The US media shows photos of flag burnings, to create the same incitement
that they get from koran flusing. Its all about stirring up hatred to
keep up the war effort... just that in "our" case, the war is far away
that we have the luxury of distance and cynicism.

If your loved ones were killed by an american murderer, likely you'd
find every single thing american distasteful, and an offense, liberal,
conservative or no. Propaganda is not people, and only people are
sensitive.

[Cocottelle]

7. Loved your response