Taking Responsibility in Afghanistan (or...not)

Dakini

Today's headlines say: "Afghan Protesters Throw Grenades at Embassy". Why is the news about the recent burning of the Quran all about the reaction to it by Afghans, and not about why the burning happened, and who is responsible? It seems like the media are using the occasion to portray Afghans as hostile and overly-emotional. What about the US responsibility? Why is there no report on the investigation that was ordered on the Quran burning incident? Today the news said Obama announced to Afghans that "it was a mistake". "Mistakes" like that can start wars! "Oops" isn't a good enough response to something like this. Who was responsible it? WTF were they thinking? Why is there such one-sided reporting on this incident? :rant:

zombiegirl

I wish they would just respond by burning some bibles. Ironically, that would probably piss off some Christians, but perhaps they would realize how dumb the actions were in the first place.

Dakini

I wish they would just respond by burning some bibles. Ironically, that would probably piss off some Christians, but perhaps they would realize how dumb the actions were in the first place.

That might be optimistic.

Notice that the Afghans aren't stupid enough to burn Bibles. Our troops, however, seem to be lacking in the wisdom and diplomacy dept.

possibilities

Our troops, however, seem to be lacking in the wisdom and diplomacy dept.

My guess is that the troops are indoctrinated to believe the enemy is sub-human and their beliefs are not to be respected. I wonder if some folks here have info on that. I vaguely remember one forum member, wolf something, said as much.....

On top of that, of course, whoever allowed that to happen is dangerously stupid. A faux pas that has cost people their lives.

Telly03

I don't believe the intent was to poke Islam with a stick... those were copies that were written in by Afghan prisoners to pass messages, which is also a religious taboo.

So the intent was to destroy copies of a book that no longer had a functional use to the owners... so the owners, being shockingly ignorant of possible religious sensitivites, which should not be surprising to anyone at this point after all the mistakes made by us in the past years, decided to dipose of them along with all other paper waste.

But the point is the intent... it was a mistake. Why kill people over a mistake? You shouldn't even have to apologize for a mistake... apologies should be used when you change your mind about your intent... did you know that the Native Americans did not even have a word for "sorry", it was enough to just say "accident" or "mistake"

So an Afghan soldier killed American troops in retaliation... his intent was pretty clear, and no demands for an apology from Karzai was heard... so does this mean we feel the killings were justified?

vinlyn

I wish they would just respond by burning some bibles. Ironically, that would probably piss off some Christians, but perhaps they would realize how dumb the actions were in the first place.

That might be optimistic.

Notice that the Afghans aren't stupid enough to burn Bibles. Our troops, however, seem to be lacking in the wisdom and diplomacy dept.

Well, they were stupid enough to destroy Buddha monuments.

compassionate_warrior

That was the Taliban, not ordinary Afghans, that destroyed the Buddha monuments.

@Telly03 This is the first I've heard about the basis for the Quran burning. I haven't seen that in the news. Thanks for the info.

caz

If you hadn't noticed Muslims of the middle east area will burn and brutalise anything on a whim or not, They are easily incited to anger because they are filled with Ignorance and in afghanistan being previously uber conservative Islamic under the taliban its no suprise such a mentality wouldn't go away its not like the muslim lands have been through a period of secularisation like the majority of western nations have rendering the people less religiously fanatic and without an urge to fulfill the violent obligations of ancient desert gods and their messangers.

This having been said of course doesn't excuse the stupdity of the soliders who left charred remains of these books in the incinerator for local afghans to sweep out the remains. When the local people are backwards and Religiously fundemental its a strategic error to burn their holy books especially when you employ local cleaners.

vinlyn

That was the Taliban, not ordinary Afghans, that destroyed the Buddha monuments.

Taliban who were citizens of Afghanistan. Do you suppose there has been any Taliban influence in the protests over the burnings of the Korans?

compassionate_warrior

I think the reaction would have been very similar with or without Taliban influence. The American action seems even more egregious in light of the possibility of Taliban presence and use of the incident for their own propaganda.

its a strategic error to burn their holy books especially when you employ local cleaners.

It's hard to believe such an error happened.