Obama jumps the gun again by sending apology/regret letter to Karzai
Let’s the letter President Obama sent to the president of Afghanistan concerning the alleged Quran burning. Why can’t we see it? Why do we have the Afghan government publicly claiming NATO officials agreed “perpetrators will be brought to justice” while the Pentagon and White House remain silent on the issue?
I think he jumped the gun apologizing for the “incident” of Quran burning in his letter to Hamid Karzai. After the original news reports that set off violence in Afghanistan, we learn the prisoners at Bagram had already desecrated the Qurans. Where is the outrage and the demands to know which prisoners desecrated the books? Where is the demand to bring these men to trial under sharia law?
There is none, none at all; simply because this is all feigned outrage. The Islamic Fundamentalists are never letting a good feigned crisis go to waste.
An Afghanistan government website has posted a press release, it includes, in part…
After the shameful incident by the US soldiers stationed in Bagram, senior NATO and American officials expressed their deep apologies to the Muslim nation of Afghanistan and assured that such incidents will not happen again.
and
NATO officials promised to meet Afghan nation’s demand of bringing to justice, through an open trial, those responsible for the incident and it was agreed that the perpetrators of the crime be brought to justice as soon as possible.
Who promised to meet Afghanistan’s demands? Specifically, who did this? Or will NATO officials go on the record and say the Afghan government’s website has incorrect information?
Chris Carter at The US Report writes. (Hat tip to Crush at Blackfive.)
A small portion of Obama’s letter – suspiciously (and perhaps deliberately) ambiguous – is floating around stating “We will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible.”
What does the president mean, holding the soldiers accountable to military law? They didn’t do anything wrong. If they did, show us what code they violated. Or does he mean sharia law? Desecrating the Koran, especially by non-Muslims could result in the death penalty. But American soldiers are held only to US law, not Islamic law. Besides, depending on what jurist you talk to, burning of Korans is entirely permissible if the books are damaged – which the Korans in question were, at the hands of Muslims.
The three page letter to Karzai included many topics, only a portion of which referenced the Quran burning. It was not a three page apology letter, but White House Press Secretary Jay Carney definitely referred to a portion of it being an apology.
“The president, following up on a telephone conversation … wrote a long letter on a variety of issues related to our bilateral engagement, including reconciliation, including the trilateral talks that we had with Pakistan last week in Islamabad,” Carney said. “He also expressed his apology for the inadvertent burning of religious materials by American personnel in Afghanistan. It is wholly appropriate given the understandable sensitivities to this issue. His primary concern as commander in chief is the safety of American men and women in Afghanistan, of our military and civilian personnel there. It’s absolutely the right thing to do.”
The president himself actually said the letter calmed things down in Afghanistan.
President Obama on Wednesday said his apology has “calmed things down” in Afghanistan after Americans burned Korans and sparked a rash of violence.
Still, he cautioned, “We’re not out of the woods yet.”
After his letter, there was more violence. Four days ago seven US troops were wounded in an attack at a NATO base and two military officers were shot at the Afghan interior ministry. (News of the letter broke early on Feb. 23, and news about the shooting at the interior ministry was released early on Feb. 26.)
News of two more troops being killed by an Afghan soldier and a literacy teacher inside a base in southern Afghanistan broke this morning.
Answer me this. What type of personality steps up in this particular situation and says “if i didn’t do this it would have been worse?” How does he know this as fact? I could just as easily said his letter made things worse and a few Islamic Fundamentalists took the letter as a sign of weakness … and attacked.
What’s really telling here is that the president apologized so quickly, and now that more information is available and people have given some actual thought to the situation, the White House remains silent about what has been said by the Afghan government.
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I’m sure Barry takes good care of his koran.? And his prayer rug.
Two more dead this morning.? I’m sure Karzai will buckle under the immense pressure to ‘apologize’ by noon.
Best to bow by letter if he can’t bow in person.
“President Bush has apologized to Iraq’s prime minister for an American sniper’s shooting of a Quran, and the Iraqi government called on U.S. military commanders to educate their soldiers to respect local religious beliefs.” (May 21, 2008)
What a shame that we (the current administration) didn’t learn from that and Abu Graib.
Thanks Dim, I was just going to lose my cool.
The President should have let the military in Afghanistan handle the situation.
When I first heard of this I thought the Afghan religious radicals would grasp on this and go wild. They have with a vengeance. For Bary to issue an apology is plain dumb. He is making a mess of micromanaging. Issue a statement saying that he urges calm while the matter is investigated, and release a statement that the Korans were destroyed after it was determined they were defaced by Taliban/rebel prisoners. Stick to the facts. He’s delusional to allow our service people to be judged by Shia law! Military personnel operate under the UCMJ.
?bama wants the Afghans to go go nuts over this. He is handling this incident perfectly to inflame passions.
Who leaked the Koran burning anyway?
?
So it would have OK to “keep the burning a secret”? A good way to make enemies.
Do you think letting the world, particularly the Muslim world, know didn’t make a few enemies?
Does anyone? else get the feeling that the Islamic faithful spend way too much time and energy looking for a reason to legitimize themselves by rioting and murdering?
Thanks Karzai…… for nothin’!? ?
I’m confused…when did the US call a truce with Afghanistan?? Don’t the apologies usually come 50 or so years later in the form of origami cranes?? Is the war over?? Or is this the lefty, pc way of engaging in war??
War is, by definition, a state or period of “armed hostility”.? How does apologizing to the leader of the nation we are at war with make our “leader” look??
As for what kind of personality thinks they made things better by apologizing to the enemy?? A delusional and grandiose one.
I agree, winnie, you are confused.
And clearly, sammy, you are the great all-knowing Oz when it comes to “getting it” where Obama’s ulterior motives are concerned?? Please, enlighten me as to where the benefit of Obama’s apology to Karzai is going to finally appear?? How many dead people = a successful apology?
Bring our troops home NOW and let Karzai ” stew in his own juices” as my Mom used to say
Then use a drone to get the rioters. I’m sick of this stupid, uneducated, uncivilized, rioting mass of Afghan cretins! Where are the leftist peaceniks when you want them? Where is Cyndi? is she still at Bush’s ranch? President Obama if you harm one hair on the head of a US troop, I’m sending a posse of Annie Oakleys after you and Hillary too.
LOL I guess I lost my cool anyway and without you know who’s help.