snatchel wrote:Agreed--it would be outrageous to allow the soldiers to be tried under Sharia.
However, I think that the soldiers responsible should be held accountable for their actions, under UCMJ law. Do I care that a Koran was burned? Nope. It isn't the act that angers me, it's the principle. American soldiers are representatives of our wonderful country, and should know better than to act in a way that brings a bad name to her. Burning the Korans didn't do any good except to stir up trouble and possibly make the situation more dangerous that it was.
When I was in Iraq the 2nd time, one of the Army soldiers that was on my base got into trouble for kicking a Koran through the dirt. It was intentional and mean spirited, and I didn't feel the least bit sorry for him when he was tried under UCMJ for his irresponsible behavior. Fact is that most Americans don't care for Islam, the Koran, or anything related... but as Americans we need to provide the example of religious tolerance (to the extent that it's safe to do so, IE., zero tolerance for Islamic Fundamentalists, etc).
While you make good points, and something like kicking a book of any kind is rather childish, there is a much larger issue reflected in the response from authority to these kinds of incidents, and to the rules US military personnel have to follow in order to appease Muslims. The plain and simple fact is that our values are superior to their values (not perfect, but clearly superior). Their so called civilization is not worthy of our respect, merely of our toleration (and only to some practical degree). We shouldn't respect their contempt for women, their contempt for religious freedom, their contempt for freedom of speech, and their primitive laws and behavior.
Our appeasement of their depraved cultural attitudes is just as dangerous to our troops and our objectives, if not more so, than the provocation of burning a Koran. Our attempt to be culturally neutral also provides them with a tremendous amount of leverage that they use to escalate trivial incidents into major confrontations. This is analogous to 2nd amendment issues here --you can't appease a liberal by accepting bans on "high capacity" magazines and "assault" rifles any more than you can appease this primitive culture by issuing groveling apologies and punishing our troops for trivial acts that are legal and acceptable in any country with a reasonable concept of human rights. Even liberals see such capitulation as weakness, and these people are far more hardened and determined than any liberal.
There is no example of conduct that will convince a true-believer that he should change his behavior. They will perceive our toleration as weakness, and furthermore, if we tolerate, for example, their treatment of women (which isn't just a behavior of fundamentalists), what example have we set? All we do with such toleration is demonstrate that we don't believe strongly enough in or own values to apply them, and in that case, why should they believe in them either?
"Journalism, n. A job for people who flunked out of STEM courses, enjoy making up stories, and have no detectable integrity or morals."
From the WeaponsMan blog, weaponsman.com
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