U.S. and Afghan authorities disagree about whether to not the U.S. military’s burning of Muslim holy books was intentional after a joint investigation that was ordered by Marine Gen. John Allen.
U.S. officials involved in the investigation found it was a mistake involving at least five Americans who may face “disciplinary review.” They claim the books were sent to storage after Afghan detainees were suspected of writing messages in them as a way to communicate. When there was a lack of storage space, the U.S. soldiers burned them in a pit outside the Bagram facility.
But many Afghans dispute this story. Maulvi Khaliq Dad, a top Afghan religious leader who was appointed by President Hamid Karzai to investigate the incident, claimed the burning was intentional.
“They lied to the Afghan workers and the Afghan National Army officers, telling them they were going to store the books in a container, then they went and burned the books. If it was not intentional, they would not have lied,” Dad said. He also disputes the U.S. claim that the scribbles in the books were being used by inmates in a malicious way.
The angry protests that swept across Afghanistan has led to scores of deaths, including several Americans in alleged revenge attacks. The truth of whether the books were burned intentionally is almost irrelevant because Afghans aren’t merely protesting the act of desecration, but rather the violent, cruel military occupation and domination they’ve been subjected to since 2001.
Back in 2008 there was a similar situation but in Iraq, where a US soldier was using a Koran for target practice — certainly not an innocent error. Bush apologized, promised the soldier would be disciplined and sent back to the States, and that seems to have been the end of the incident. Apparently, either Obama is not seen a sincere enough in his apology, or being that this is Afghanistan, there is a different level of tolerance, or both. And also there was a genuine, written promise for America to leave Iraq (SOFA) which is lacking in Afghanisan. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2008/05/20/uk-iraq-…
The ONLY rational response to this event and it's deadly aftermath is to leave…now. It's not rocket science to figure out that they don't want us there – we invaded their country (no matter how dysfunctional it was) – and then moved in with 100,000 people with weapons, and continue to terrorize and traumatize the citizens regardless of association with the Taliban/al Qaeda/mujahideen/freedom fighters/rebels…whatever.
If Dubya had only gone after the 100+/- al Qaeda and their bases, eliminated them and left the rest of the country alone – after telling the Taliban that it would not be wise to allow bases like those again, we would not be stuck in that rat hole. Think of the lives and money and integrity and honor we would not have squandered chasing some neocons visions of world domination.
Fools. Leave now.