US military: soldier shot at Quran for practice

What disregards for us they have. We're being hated enough as it is by them, as publics where we are. That's not going to help us through with this dang war.

"This just in, a new phenomena is sweeping the nation! Book shooting, replacing the grand old book burning, is the latest craze with middle class white American youth, with favorite titles including the Koran, 1984, Little Brother, and Woodstock nation."

This is ridiculous, this world has totally gone down the drain. People complain about everything. "A soldier shoots a book today and he will recieve severe disiplinary punishment."

Doesnt get anymore stupid then that. Just because we are over there doesnt mean we have to respect there ways. But to an extent to where it doesnt hurt or get anyone in trouble.

Thing is, it's not just a book to let's say, the PEOPLE who already HATE the UK, Us and France for what we're doing . We're going to be hated forever, not saying we should be like them, but c'mon, WTF? WHY was THAT even nessisary for the fighter to do? a real bad position too, a SOLIDER, 'proving what we're fighting in Isreali for' this can't be good.

dmass5, true, it is just a book. But in their land it is a sacred book. Current user beefcurry made a great point on another thread that is covering this story http://current.com/items/88961446_quran_book_used_for_t... ... "win the support of the people and you win the war."

Well that is true, i can see a slap on the wrist, but they make it seem like he is going to the brigg or prison!

He has his own views and should not be punished for them. But i can see why they would get mad about it, its there holy book.

This world today, you cant say anything without offending anyone, and if u do say it, your getting sued, or your forced to apologize!

I guess, but once they know about it, breakdown or no breakdown, we need to show disaplin for the embaressing actions, (I'm Not a fachist! Promise!) if we don't, it'll only get even worse.

To be human means to respect fellow humans...

Firstly any idiot could foresee that the defacing of a holy book in a country that you are occupying is not going to help relations, secondly I don’t think that religion (any religion) should be forced on anyone but of course you have to respect peoples choice. If it was the other way around and a Muslim in the US defaced a bible people would be outraged, think about it.

Knowone is saying it’s a nice place to be right now but the why play into radical hands by backing up their arguments fanning the flames of the fire.

It’s right to discipline the individual involved after all if it leads to further tension in the area a moment of stupidity could cost yet more lives. As for getting removed that’s more likely to be for the soldiers safety as well as being the right thing to do.

"So what?" might be the most appropriate response. After all, it is just a book.

However, the soldier should be rightly reprimanded for knowing better than to do this given how the media would use it to protect Islamic terrorism in response. I would imagine he has been counseled on cultural do's/dont's and desecrating a Quran was probably high on the list of things that would annoy an Islamic population. In other words, he knew better and by doing what he did, knew it would only make problems.

unfortunately, the fact is that Islam is one of the few (if only) religions that would predictably react to this sort of thing with violence as opponsed to non-violence, although so many claim the religion to be one of peace and tolerance.

Also unfortunately, The patterned fact appears to be that if one person desecrates a Quran or a facet of Islam, then Islam approves (if not requires) people to be murdered in response. And the media lays a cover to justify that response.

When the Islamic Malaysian government confiscated a shipment of Bibles one of their citizens attempted to bring in recently and cast them aside, did the Christian world go nuts? Nope.

Wow. I thought tossing a puppy off a cliff was evil behavior (still do). This sends the worst possible message to Muslims the world over.

I care less about the stupid book. All religion in my view is nothing more then a bad habit. The only thing that hurts me is the children that were killed. All for a religion. When will it stop some might ask. When religion is outlawed.

This makes me so mad, i know i have commented 3 times on this, but damn, all you hear is bad news from the war.

The army has built countless churches, schools, hospitals, and then we try and fix there government. And a couple assholes ruin it for everyone.

Yes there has been bad done, but how often do you hear about it? NEVER!!

This is the exact kind of thing that makes you lose a war. "Win their hearts and minds", thats how you win a war. This is a pretty big screw-up on the strategic field, just because some redneck was bored and uneducated.
Besides, it could be that the grunt who did this did it precisely to get thrown into the brig so he wouldn't have to go on patrol in the 100 degree heat and risk getting turned into flechette filet by an IED.

clayjj05 - Devout Muslims believe the Koran is sacred, probably even more so than devout Christians believing the bible is sacred. Those who believe religion is a tool for controlling the masses are one group of people and the Muslims are another, each entitled to their beliefs. That doesn't mean if you don't believe in the Koran or you don't believe in the bible that you disrespect those that do. What is a "useless book" to you means a great deal to someone else. When you say things like "They" strap bombs to 12 year old girls" you're lumping every single Muslim into a terrorist group! It's like saying that KKK members that go to church every Sunday means that all Christians are abominable racists. Can you see those differences?

I'm non-religious and hate the stuff, but my opinion repeated again. Bad show for 'what we'll do for the war'

This is absolutely disgusting, what ever happened to respect and decency? I don't believe that any type of severe punishment will be given to the soldier, and so none should, i mean it was just a bad decision. However its definitely a direct disrespect to the people in the nation and all who believe in the Quran. Its quite a messy situation, and i suppose that's what happens when you send ignorance into a world they know nothing about.

Oh my Clay that’s the funniest rebuttal I’ve ever heard. That’s like a racist guy telling me, “Hey I ain’t racist. I like you.” Wow I seriously hope you were joking there.

Clayjj05 evidently has access to some heretofore unknown statistics confirming that "just most of" Muslim's are terrorists and animals.

go figure - a soldier might just get mad enough about being shot at constantly by Koran quoting maniacs to want to shred a copy of the thing . if the US gov't wants to avoid such future indecencies then maybe it shouldn't send guys over there to begin with , and the entire region should be allowed to have the kind of "civil war" it's been wanting to have since 1947.

Well, I guess that in the absence of the usual paper targets that are normally used to zero, confirm shot grouping, and demonstrate weapon proficiency, the book would suffice. My only concerns would be the possible glare produced by the sun reflecting off of the vinyl cover and how to ensure steady Koran positioning between shots.

Wow. How disrespectful can someone be? It breaks me heart to see how apathetic and ignorant people can be to others.

clay, actually you're completely wrong.

On the radio today it was said that a vast majority of people in the middle east dont take issue with the West for their political or even military involvement as much as for their denegration of Islam.

And people in this country why the world has such a negative view of us. Islam was here way before us, and should at the very least be respected. True, their are those who twist and contort it into something vile, but we have that in every religion, including Christianity. To disregard completely the laws of the land your in only serves to deepen people's loathing of us. Instead of spreading so called freedom, we are doing nothing more than providing a conduit for more American branded bigotry to other lands. Is this what we want our chief export to the world to be?

This is a great way to build solidarity with the folks you're supposed to be there "protecting and helping." This war was a mistake from the beginning, enough is enough. It's been seven years too long, it's time for the stars and stripes to get out NOW.

It amazes me people wound why America is hated so much... I hope that dumb ass is still peeling potatoes.

MAN! He shot the book on purpose, he knew exactly what he was doing.

It seem strange that most folks wouldn't see this as a big deal, 'oh he's just shooting a book', but c'mon-- that is the Islamic holy book. & chances are if you're hatin' on them & live in America, you're of Judeo-Christian faith. Now what if someone decided they wanted to publicly destroy the Bible? You'd flip out.

We shouldn't be over there to denounce their faith & their way of life. & how are you supposed to promote 'peace in the middle east' with such an act of ignorance?

As deplorable as his act was, I have to admit that the military ACTUALLY did something right in their recognition that it was "serious and deeply troubling" and their sincere apologies to the Muslim community.

As much as we've done for those people and they're going to get all high and mighty over a damn book? Let's pull out for real if that's their attitude.

I am reiterating what most have said on this, it is really sad that a soldier would do something like that. Knowing that the Koran is a Holy book, like the Bible. I am not religious, but I sure as hell would not choose to destroy someone else's belief system, no matter how much I disagree with it.

So we're being religiously intolerant if we don't succomb to their religious intolerance.

Thats a really easy way to get out of Iraq. We need all the soldiers to shoot the Quran

So much for being respectful and diplomatic.

I am ashamed to be a human when i her things like this where is the respect of others. this is what happens when men go on to man tours in a row to Iraq.

Sounds like a great plan to get somewhere else. Better than being gay right?

It's certainly got to be a lot lesser charge than refusing to obey orders, how much time would they give you for that?

Bin Laden said in March that while he despised the Western governments for dropping bombs on mud villages killing their women and children, he was even more disgusted by the Danish cartoons that were printed depicting Mohammed. So I imagine they take Holy Book Desecration pretty seriously too. Which is a huge problem.

Anybody who is willing to kill me for what I do to a book, I have a serious problem with. While I would accept a small fine, maybe a loogey in my direction, a shove in the back, etc., i would not appreciate a bullet in the brain. Some people have more respect for inanimate things than life, which to me is the saddest part about what religion has done to the minds of humans.

The worst part is that it is them who will never forgive me for my crudeness/vulgarity/lack of self control.

The military's response is encouraging, though it's a shame the learning curve has been so slow. A lot of people have died because of poor leadership in the military and (mostly) the civilian leadership. There were, and probably still are, lots of talented, well-informed, and patriotic individuals in the military, State Department, Defense Department, and intelligence community, but unfortunately if you put your loyalty to the truth and the country before the Administration and your own career, you no longer existed.

My point is, if you're like some of the individuals who've posted comments that blame the Iraqis or accuse them of being ungrateful for our invasion and occupation, you are an idiot! I'm not going to name names, because I'm respectful, but you people should really shut the hell up.

The following is my edited response to a user on another thread that's also covering this topic. I took the time to write the thing so I might as well post it to the hot thread :-) :

Support from the local community in the war zone as well as the world at large is the fulcrum by which wars are either won or lost. Shooting the Qur'an will definitely intensify the war and motivate more Islamic members of the world to sway towards the anti-American side of the aisle.

A Pew Research Center survey recently reported that in the world's largest Islamic country, Indonesia, favorable opinions of the U.S. plummeted from 75 percent in 2000 to 29 percent in 2007. http://pewglobal.org/reports/pdf/256.pdf As Chalmers Johnson states in Blowback (2004), "Despite Indonesia's long tradition of a relaxed and heterodox approach to religion, outrage against America's arrogant and racist attitudes toward Muslims has started to turn the country toward Islamic fundamentalism and militancy".

In addition to helping fuel the insurgency and terrorism in Iraq al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attacks on the WTC, the USS Cole and US embassies. The group's leader, Osama bin Laden's, has stated that the core grievance for his entire holy war is U.S. occupation of Islam's holiest of lands, Saudi Arabia. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fat...

In The Revolution: A Manifesto, congressman Ron Paul notes that "[w]hile al Qaeda terrorists are twice as likely to hail from a country with a strong Wahhabist (radical Islamic) presence, they are ten times as likely to come from a county in which U.S. troops are stationed... Between 1982 and 1986 there were 41 suicide terrorist attacks in Lebanon. Once the U.S., France and Israel withdrew their forces from Lebanon, there were no more attacks."

The University of Chicago's Robert Pape, author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism explains that the reason these attacks stop "is that the Osama bin Ladens of the world can no longer inspire potential suicide terrorists, regardless of their religious beliefs."

America's financial aid to and occupation of other nations certainly does not fit with George Washington's sentiment that "in regard to foreign nations... [we should have] as little political connection as possible]. ". Would Thomas Jefferson describe our current foreign policy as having "[p]eace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none"? Would John Quincy Adams say that at present America "goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy"?

My point is that if we are already battling one monster we should not be inviting others to the fray. Aspects of this war have become very complex. We do not want to make it any easier for groups like al Qaeda to recruit resentful and enraged muslims around the world. Using a Qur'an for target practice is something we could have and this soldier should have avoided.

Original post appears here
http://current.com/items/88961446_quran_book_used_for_t...

Honestly, there wasn't anything else for him to shoot at? No cans, bottles, nothing????