COMMENTARY | The U.S. military has a hard time dealing with its past. Inasmuch as the Vietnam War was compared to the Iraq War, now we have this pesky business of violent protests in Afghanistan as backlash for American troops burning copies of the Holy Quran.
Time magazine reports a gunman entered the Interior Ministry Feb. 25 and shot two American advisers dead. Around 30 people have been killed in six days of clashes over the burning of copies of the Quran in a trash dumpster at a large American air base in Kabul.
Reuters states clashes have happened outside a U.S. base in northern Afghanistan that injured two NATO troops and killed two Afghans. These incidents have happened despite an apology from U.S. President Barack Obama.
It should come as no surprise to American troops that locals have responded with such violence. CNN quoted Gen. David Petraeus when he warned in September 2010 that Pastor Terry Jones’s planned Quran burning might spark violence and harm U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
It turns out, Petraeus was right. ABC News stated in early April that that 11 people were killed due to Jones’s act of symbolically burning a copy of the holy book. Four U.N guards were killed in clashes northern Afghanistan.
The phrase “those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it” bears out its ugly truth is this case. Not only did U.S. commanders study the violence the last time Americans burned a Koran but even ignored an indirect order from a commanding general. If Petraeus felt like a civilian shouldn’t burn the Quran for fear of backlash, then that should have been a standing order to anyone under his command from his top advisers down to the lowest private who digs latrines.
The loss of life in Afghanistan due to the accidental Quran burning is regrettable but preventable. Much like two wars, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, these senseless deaths didn’t have to happen if military advisers simply did a little more planning instead of rushing into situations they knew little about.
It’s time for the deaths to stop and troops to come home. Enough is enough.