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thedrifter
06-05-05, 11:20 PM
Ask Me if I Care About ‘Mishandling’ of Koran


June 5, 2005

by Doug Patton


First, Newsweek pulled a Dan Rather on us, running a fabricated story just because they wanted it to be true. They told the world that an American guard at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center had ripped pages from a prisoner’s Koran and flushed it down a toilet. As a result, innocent people died when practitioners of Islam rioted in protest in Afghanistan.

Oops, said Newsweek , it seems we can’t back up our story. Oh well, it’s probably true; we just can’t prove it. (Isn’t it convenient for Newsweek that the media now have “Deep Throat” to talk about so they can revel in their glory days and divert our attention from their criminal negligence.)

The lie heard round the world about the flushed Koran has caused convulsions in the Bush Administration and forced the Pentagon to launch an investigation of unfounded allegations contained in an unsubstantiated story. The results of said investigation are now in, and it seems there are at least five incidents of “mishandling” of the Koran at Gitmo.

Well, guess what? I DON’T CARE!

Are we fighting a war on terror or aren’t we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001? Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from our nation’s capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania? Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning death that day, or didn’t they?

And I’m supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was “desecrated” when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet? Well, I don’t. I don’t care at all.

I’ll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.

I’ll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia.

I’ll care when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tells the world he is sorry for hacking off Nick Berg’s head while Berg screamed through his gurgling, slashed throat.

I’ll care when the cowardly so-called “insurgents” in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.

I’ll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.

I’ll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

I’ll care when Clinton-appointed judges stop ordering my government to release photos of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, which are sure to set off the Islamic extremists just as Newsweek’s lies did a few weeks ago.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don’t care.

When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college hazing incident, rest assured that I don’t care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank that I don’t care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being “mishandled,” you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts that I don’t care.

And oh, by the way, I’ve noticed that sometimes it’s spelled “Koran” and other times “Quran.” Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and — you guessed it — I don’t care!

Doug Patton

Ellie

Sgted
06-05-05, 11:25 PM
Hypocrisy Most Holy <br />
<br />
By ALI AL-AHMED <br />
May 20, 2005 - WSJ Opinion Journal <br />
<br />
With the revelation that a copy of the Quran may have been desecrated by <br />
U.S. military personnel at Guantanamo Bay,...

Toby M
06-06-05, 09:13 AM
Wow! I am shocked to read a Muslim making these kinds of statements. Too bad the rest of his brethren don't feel the same...

hrscowboy
06-06-05, 09:42 AM
To hell with them muslims and there Koran.. I DONT CARE!!!!!

thedrifter
06-06-05, 02:15 PM
The Scandal of American Imperfection

by Mac Johnson
Posted Jun 6, 2005

All criticism of the military over alleged “mishandling” of the Koran ended this week, when it was revealed that the Guantanamo Bay guards accused of the acts were actually being funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. The New York Times gave rave reviews to “The Guantanamo Project” as the guards call their art co-operative, citing the powerful message that “acts of artistic juxtaposition” can send about religious absolutism, patriarchy, and the tyranny of unquestioned symbols. “The best show since **** Christ!” raved Newsweek.

Oh wait, I just made that up. But does anyone really believe that those currently in a frenzy over these allegations actually consider mishandling of any inanimate object associated with religion to be such a serious matter and a cause for their own spontaneous indignation?

A lot of secular, agnostic, atheist and otherwise thoroughly non-muslim people have spent a lot of time arguing over the past few weeks about just what –exactly-- constitutes “Koran abuse,” whether or not it actually occurred, and just how unforgivable it is (No Excuse for Koran Abuse!).

But lets be honest: the media brouhaha over the Koran, its unquestioned sanctity, and its real or alleged proximity to plumbing fixtures has absolutely squat to do with the Koran, its unquestioned sanctity, or its real or alleged proximity to plumbing fixtures. It’s about the pre-existing internal politics of the western democracies. The real reason the mainstream media and left-wing political activists are criticizing the military over these allegations is that they so want America to be guilty of something –anything-- that can justify their pre-existing animosity that they are even willing to feign a newfound respect for religious symbols just to have something to be offended about.

This same need to justify pre-existing animosity is also what fueled the Abu Ghraib “torture” scandal, the indignant response to the looting by Iraqis of Iraq’s museums after the initial invasion, the “illegal” shooting of various terrorists, the declaration of the illegal combatants in Afghanistan as “illegal combatants,” the comparison of the Guantanamo Bay holding facility to the Soviet Gulags, and a dozen other exaggerated events over the past three years.

These “scandals,” “atrocities,” and “missteps” are not causes of outrage, they are just useful weapons for those who were already in a state of outrage over American power or policy –or (more frequently) just the fact that American power and policy are currently being directed by George W. Bush and the Republican Party. These events are not the motivation for the angry crowd to gather, they’re just the handy rocks the crowd is throwing. What such manufactured messes are, in fact, are fine examples ensuring failure by setting impossible standards.

This statistical approach to propaganda is a form of bias in reporting, designed to ensure that America will be afflicted by a constant stream of scandals, atrocities, and missteps, so long as its policy is out of favor with those doing the reporting. This technique takes two forms.

One form is lowering the bar for outrage. In this version, you simply redefine deviance upward, so to speak, until it is statistically certain that some U.S. action can be defined as deviant. The redefinition of the word “torture” is a prime example of this technique.

Words mean things, unfortunately these things can be changed through incorrect and disingenuous usage. We all know what is really meant by the word “torture” --hideous and extreme physical pain applied without mercy, often as an end in itself. Torture is now defined as anything that causes any discomfort--physically, emotionally, or aesthetically.

Sleep deprivation is torture. Rough handling is torture. Harsh words are torture. Close confinement is torture. Scary situations are torture. Embarrassment is torture. Being threatened with extradition to one’s home country is torture. Such accusations make a parody of true torture. If you want to debate the morality of torture as an interrogation tool, let’s do so. But do not belittle the very concept of torture just because you really, really want to make an accusation of torture against a government you already hate.

Another example of indictment through redefinition is the previously mentioned labeling of Guantanamo Bay as the “Gulag of our times.” “Gulag” refers to the communist system of slave labor camps that stretched across the Soviet Union. In these camps, over 1.5 million people –almost all citizens of the Soviet Union imprisoned by their own government-- were systematically starved, beat, worked, shot, or frozen to death for thought crimes, petty crimes, or merely imagined crimes over the course of several decades. Guantanamo Bay is a holding facility for a few hundred foreign terrorists, most captured in combat. This facility is so horrendous that if you say someone threw a water balloon at you or “tortured” your complementary copy of the Koran, there will be an official investigation by the military and the FBI. The Gulag, apparently, ain't what it used to be.

The other technique of ensuring failure through impossible standards is using uncommon incidents (or the crimes of individuals) to create a general indictment of misconduct against America --or at least the Bush administration. America is a huge nation. We have somewhere around 250,000 to 500,000 soldiers, agents and civilians directly involved in the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Global War on Terror at any given time. It is statistically certain that a small number will commit crimes or just screw up royally. It has happened in every war –and in every peace. You cannot assemble more than a few dozen people without this occurring.

The United States Military in World War II contained idiots, murderers, rapists, thieves, perverts, and sociopaths. This did not stop the other members of this force from becoming known as “The Greatest Generation.” And it should not have. Every society and organization should be known by the representative character of its rank and file, not by the character of its most remote moral outliers. But to those intent on defaming the U.S., its war effort, or the current administration, such a thought is non-sense.

Every soldier is a potential poster boy for Iraq or Guantanamo –all he has to do is something wrong. If a couple of ignorant perverts make prisoners perform homoerotic Twister for a souvenir photo, this is a direct and inevitable result of Donald Rumsfeld being Secretary of Defense. If one frustrated soldier –forced to deal daily with the most heinous religious fanatics imaginable-- gets mad and kicks a Koran, this is George W. Bush’s insensitive Gulag state at work.

The really fabulous thing about this form of dishonesty is that you never have to tell a lie (or make up memos), you simply have to report the small as though it were large and the rare as if it were common.

Once you’ve adopted this standard, you’re 100% guaranteed of the outcome: America --bad, bad, bad. The result, however, says less about America than it does about the people that set such impossible standards.

Mr. Johnson is a freelance writer and medical researcher living in Cambridge, MA. His published commentaries can be viewed at www.macjohnson.com.


Ellie

david fox
06-06-05, 02:18 PM
I have to agree with both post. The Muslim religion has to respect other religions as valid and not looked at as "infidels" because we are not.
On the other hand my son (a 3/7 Marine) and I (CPO in USCG) are more than willing to help someone meet Allah in a most hurried manner.
Being nice has brought us very little so far, so being fair to this particular religion is a little hard for us to take.