I'm a little behind the curve here because the apology in the OP isn't there now. Or at least I can't see it. Is the link dead? Am I missing something?
jlwilliams, I just checked it and its still there. might be a browser setting?
Might be something like that. I just came back to the computer after a few hours away and sure enough, it works fine now. My computer is a bit of a punk.
I agree with the general sentiment of the woman. Her opinions and observations are valid. I too wish we had a President with balls. I'm not going to pick nits over the details, I agree with the sentiment and that's enough when it comes to an opinion piece like this.
I see TM7's point that the desecration of the qur'ans may have been turned into a possable win or at least not have become the poop storm that the burning has become. Would it have been a real "home run" to show the jihadis to be less than pious muslims? I doubt it. I suspect that those within the Islamic world as a whole would give them a pass because they were prisoners of the Great Satan. I also doubt that the word of Quranic desecration by Muslim hands would have really spread. Al Jazira would certainly have found other stories to run. Stories that keep the ire of the worlds' muzzies focused squarely on Jews, Zionists and Crusaders. Could this have been handled better or at least differently? 20-20 hindsight says...yes it surely could have been handled better. When a situation arose that called for destruction of damaged Qur'ans (especially in a Muslim country) one would think that the officer making that call would have consulted an imam to get an idea of the correct and accepted protocol. That wasn't done and should have been.
I see the murder in retribution as being wholeley out of proportion to the percieved offense of the destruction of texts. No matter how holy one regards the text as, doesn't placing that sort of holiness on the physical ink and paper copy of those words constitute idolatry? Idolatry is a sin in the context of Islam, is it not? They are pretty strict about worshiping God, not worshiping
images of God. Maybe one of you with a better understanding of that religion can explain that for me.
Back to the woman's apology. The world trembles at the though of offending Muslims because they will riot at any slight. The President of the United States of America is apologising to a tin horn dictator who would be a corpse without that same President's continued support, because the world's most powerful nation is a fly spec compared to the world's most populous and powerful religion. They are so many and so violent that they are within a few generations of global hegemony. I share her frustration. I'm no fan of
this president, but I'm a
huge fan of this nation. To see our President prostrate himself (and therefor all of us) wounds me.
