Why would Christians purposely put troops at additional risk?
Posted By RichC on September 7, 2010
When I heard about a radical church protesting at US soldiers funerals 4 or 5 years ago (Westboro Baptist Church), it pained me having to think about families having to endure such cruelty. I wondered, “just what they were hoping to accomplish by this action?”
Now, another radical church called Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville FL is inflaming Muslims around the world by proposing to burn the Quran. Their pastor, Terry Jones (left) say he will burn copies of the Quran on September 11th, the 9th year anniversary of radical Islamic terrorist strikes against New York City and Washington DC.
Again, what are they hoping to accomplish? A bigger concern is for our troops and civilian Americans risking their lives to keep our country safe; they are working hard to bring a peaceful democracy in war torn tribal Afghanistan. The job is dangerous and difficult enough without citizens at home stirring up fundamental Muslims around the world. Gen. David Petraeus commented in an article this morning that he is concerned that “the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes, drumming up anger toward the U.S. and making it harder for allied troops to carry out their mission of protecting Afghan civilians.” Is the burning necessary and what positive comes from such an action?
After reading the article, I assumed that most Americans would see burning Qurans as an unnecessary and senseless demonstration with little or no benefit. It certainly doesn’t support our troops and overseas goals. To me, I expected the same reaction from commonsense Americans as the wisdom of building an Islamic center near “ground-zero” … yes it is their constitutionally given right, but its not effective in promoting peace and reducing tensions. If reactions from the past are any indicator, burning Qurans will cost lives.
It looks like I’m wrong, noticing the early voting in a WSJ poll. Quite a few readers don’t think the church should halt its plan – I was surprised.
Result are from early on Tuesday and may not be representative of final results.
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