Anti-Islam Bigots Are Putting US Troops in Danger
US Commander in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus points out the obvious: Quran-burning could endanger troops, Petraeus warns.
(CNN) — The U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday criticized a Florida church’s plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, warning that the demonstration “could cause significant problems” for American troops overseas.
“It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan,” Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.
The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, plans to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington by burning copies of the Muslim holy book. The church insists the event is “neither an act of love nor of hate” toward individual Muslins, but the event has drawn criticism from Muslims in the United States and overseas.
Sunday, thousands of Indonesians gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta to protest the planned burning, leaders urging the U.S. government to step in and stop the event. …
With about 120,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops still battling al Qaeda and its allies in the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, Petraeus warned that burning Qurans “is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems — not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.”
And one of his deputies, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, told CNN’s “The Situation Room” that the event “has already stirred up a lot of discussion and concern” among Afghans.
“We very much feel that this can jeopardize the safety of our men and women that are serving over here in the country,” said Caldwell, the head of NATO efforts to train Afghan security forces.
This Koran-burning idiocy is especially bad, but the ignorant frenzy drummed up by Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, and other anti-Muslim demagogues over the Park51 Islamic community center in lower Manhattan is also helping America’s enemies.
Frank says: