Afghan Revolts

(Repost)

So five days ago, thousands of copies of the Koran were 'Accidentally' burned at a NATO military base in Afghanistan. Angry at the US for this, Afghans have taken to the streets, and are clashing with occupation forces. So far, there isn't very much information on this, but with 2/3 of the Afghan people opposing US occupation, and a large and militant resistance, this certainly has a possibility of growing larger.

http://rt.com/news/clashes-afghanistan-koran-burnings-199/

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The Afghan foreign ministry was just broken into. 2 NATO advisers have been killed, along with some Afghan politicians. Furthermore, a UN compound was also stormed, a bunch of people thought dead, and it is currently burning down.

As of right now, major riots are taking place in the streets of Kabal. Aside from that, not too much more information

http://rt.com/news/clashes-afghanistan-koran-burnings-199/

I'll look for some non RT sources now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17163322 <-- According to the BBC, the two killed were a US colonel, and a major.

I heard otherwise that they were burned because they were believed to carry secret messages.

Even if that is the case you can't expect burning tons of copies of the Koran in a middle eastern country to go well.

Yeah, and how did they find out about this? Shouldn't NATO do is in some undisclosed location with no locals nearby.

Wow. I can't think of a worse possible way of disposing of them.

Because there isn't.

It's quite clear the Afghan people don't want us to "help" them. We've done our job, and now it's time to get the hell out of there.

Regardless of how or why the Korans were burned, it's too obvious that we are not welcome in Afghanistan, nor do we have a real reason to be there.

Certainly better then Observer's "They we're full of military intelligence so we burned the shit out of them." line. Seriously, where does he get his news?

Canada?

I love Observer's theory but I'm inclined to believe it wasn't done on purpose, given that anyone in their right mind could tell you why it's a terrible idea.

He's secretly in league with Tony Blair and Bush for a second Cursade by the Western powers against the Arabz...

Indeed, I'm sure this didn't go unpunished within the military. This could really set us back.(all the more reason to leave).

I heard similarly to Observer's comment, which is why I 'liked' it.

I am both surprised that they did it and not surprised.

On one hand, they should have known better. They were in a predominately Muslim area. They knew about the pastor in Florida that caught fire for his similar actions. They should have recieved instructions about Korans. I mean, they are providing them to the prisoners for free for crying out loud. And every prisoner wanted one. Clearly it was alot more important than they thought. Not to mention that I am pretty sure that anyone with their right mind would think that it was unlikely that they would communicate with the copies. Think about it. Burning it is defacing it. So I am pretty sure scribbling notes on them is defacing it as well. If they were really faithful, they probably wouldn't do it.

On the other hand, they probably don't know better. Why they obviously didn't recieve some basic [and we are talking VERY basic here] PR instruction, I have no idea. And they, being away from the locals when they are not on patrol, probably never found out how important the Koran is to the locals. And they are 'Merican and all that.

According to what I heard, on top of what Observer said, is that they soldiers believed that the prisoners were passing notes by writing them in the Korans. So they got new ones for the prisoners and put the old ones in the incinerator. Of course, not only the prisoners were Muslim. Apparently, some Afghan guards at the prison saw what they were doing and pulled the burned copies out the incinerator. From there the news spread 'like wildfire'.

Imperial underestimates the intelligence of our military's commanders. Here's a hint: they aren't stupid. They knew that burning Korans would have harsh consequences, and no doubt it was an accident committed by lower level troops.

Hence why I stated that clearly the troops were never given PR training.

And how am I really questioning the competence the higher ups? Their actions [or rather, inaction] speaks for itself.
And clearly there is a problem higher up because the knowledge didn't filter down to the troops. It doesn't matter if your leader it Ghandi if your people are all miniture Hitlers. The higher ups clearly never made it clear to the soldiers not to burn the religious items of the locals, did they? I would say that even the Russians would be smart enough to know what the consequences would be and make sure that their soldiers didn't do anything stupid. Igniting a jihad with the whole of the Muslim world is not what the US needs right now.

The intelligence of the higher ups is always a function of their own effectiveness. They KNEW that burning the Korans was a bad idea, but they didn't tell anyone. They failed to tell their soldiers, who represented them and the US to the people of Afghanistan and the world. Clearly, they lack SOMETHING.

Okay, I see what you are saying I misunderstood you before, but I'm still sure that they were told not to, and they did anyway, either due to a mistake, or because they were douches. probably the first one.

I seriously doubt they would burn the Korans on purpose. It had to have been a mistake.

"Blessed is the mind too small for doubt."