Nuts!

In May, the military had an “apology ceremony” after a soldier allegedly used the Qur’an as target practice. Now before I get going, it was definitely a stupid thing to do. I want to make that clear. The soldier says that he didn’t know it was the Qur’an, and that is entirely possible (the art of deception has long been mastered by our enemies, plus they have the assistance of our own media – think Haditha and the Qur’an flushing hoaxes). Whatever the case, he has been sent back to the States.

The Commander of U.S. Forces in Baghdad, Major General Jeffery Hammond, held a conference for an audience of tribal leaders, dignitaries and local security officials. An apology from the soldier was read. Gen. Hammond also offered his own apology. But, in what must have been the high point of the event, a U.S. military official kissed a Qur’an and offered the “humble gift” to the tribal leaders.

You have got to be kidding me! What effect does this have on our enemies, or even our own soldiers, when our military commanders are begging forgiveness? Is this something that George Patton or Chesty Puller would do? Shoot no – it shows weakness and actually emboldens our enemy. Slap him with a reprimand, bust him down a rank, give him latrine duty. This is a war, and bad things happen in war. Perhaps this soldier was twisted. But I am willing to give our troops the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he had seen too much, and was tired of certain members of the “religion of peace” doing everything in their power to kill (ours or theirs – both advance their cause), while his side was so deeply saturated in political correctness that it was willing to embarrass themselves and make a mockery of the armed forces.

Sheikh Hamadi al-Qirtani, who spoke on behalf of the tribal sheiks, called the incident “aggression against the entire Islamic world.” I guess the kiss wasn’t enough.

Militant Islam holds their holy sites and books in pretty high regard (except when Mosques serve as bunkers and caches, or when they blow them up themselves in order to blame the attack on the U.S.). But did they show any concern when the collapse of the South Tower destroyed the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on 9/11? To the best of my knowledge, we haven’t seen any “humble gifts” from their side.

Over here, we lose sleep over belly slaps and water boarding. Our Supreme Court has even bestowed Constitutional rights to our prisoners in GITMO while their prisoners endure untold horrors and beheadings. Apparently that doesn’t rate an “apology ceremony” either.

I won’t be holding my breath.

Perhaps the Army Center for Lessons Learned could devote some time towards analyzing the effect of the “apology ceremony.” But I bet we get the same result that we would have if we simply said “Nuts.”