Sunday, May 18, 2008

U.S. soldier uses Quran for target practice

Koran, Bible or Book of Mormon - they are all just books. Shooting one, burning one, or even eating one should not make a bit of difference. Yet it does.

A soldier used the Quran -- Islam's holy book -- for target practice, forcing the chief U.S. commander in Baghdad to issue a formal apology on Saturday.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond, commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad, flanked by leaders from Radhwaniya in the western outskirts of Baghdad, apologized for the staff sergeant who was a sniper section leader assigned to the headquarters of the 64th Armored Regiment. He also read a letter of apology by the shooter.

Source: U.S. soldier uses Quran for target practice; military apologizes - CNN.com

I am not saying that staff sergeant dumb ass was right or that his actions are somehow justified. We are fighting a war. Some level of cultural sensitivity is required. Shooting a Koran was dumb. So is raping 14-year-old girls. But kissing the friggen Koran - I mean - oh come on!

The apology went well - or maybe not.

Sheikh Hamadi al-Qirtani, in a speech on behalf of all tribal sheiks of Radhwaniya, called the incident "aggression against the entire Islamic world."

At least nobody was killed over this nonsense.

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4 comments:

Rev. BigDumbChimp said...

At least nobody was killed over this nonsense.


Yet

Anonymous said...

The only thing the Koran is good for is to be riddled with bullets since it was written by a false prophet.

Spook said...

An anonymous coward :

The only thing the Koran is good for is to be riddled with bullets since it was written by a false prophet.


Care to point me to a real prophet? Because I'm not aware of any.

Gary McGath said...

Just one objection: "We are fighting a war." We are fighting in Iraq's civil war. The United States is not fighting a war, either in the legal sense of having declared war or in the practical sense of being in military conflict with a foreign state.