US Military Burns Bibles

Apparently Don't ask and Don't tell extends to religion as well as sexual preference, at least in Afghanistan. In light of the administrations efforts to quash the 1st Ammendment rights of a Florida pastor who wanted to burn Korans I thought it appropriate to revive this story you problably never heard anyway.

Here is the transcript of the above video:

May 20, 2009 The Situation Room.

BLITZER: Meanwhile, the U.S. military is caught in a raging controversy over bibles that were burned. Some Christian groups are furious that Americans were involved in what they consider to be an unthinkable act right in the midst of a war against religious extremism in Afghanistan.

Brian Todd is here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

You've been digging on this story because it's pretty shocking.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, Wolf. And it speaks to the very delicate and often dangerous balance that U.S. commanders face in war zones -- books that are holy to the majority of U.S. service members burned in the name of protecting them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice-over): Bibles written in Pashtun and Dari, the two most common Afghan languages -- bibles sent by a church to a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, bibles that were later burned by the U.S. government. These holy books were confiscated about a year ago at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.

An independent film aired by the Al Jazeera Network had shown Evangelical soldiers worshipping at Bagram and talking about ways to share their faith.

(VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: But military rules forbid troops of any religion from proselytizing while in Afghanistan. And U.S. officials were concerned that the bibles would be used to try to convert Afghans to Christianity.

A U.S. military spokesman tells CNN, that kind of religious outreach could have provoked a violent backlash against Americans in this devoutly Muslim nation.

But in trying not to offend the Muslim population there, the military seems to have offended some Christians. The president of a Christian group called Open Doors USA is quoted as saying: "It really should shake the core of every Christian to realize that bibles are being burned."

A military analyst, who's also a Pentagon adviser, agrees.

LT. COL. ROBERT MAGINNIS (RET.), MILITARY ANALYST: There's no need to burn the bibles. They could have been shipped back. Just imagine if we were to -- you know, the same United States military were to take a bunch of Korans and burn them. I can imagine the -- the ramifications across the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Could those bibles have been shipped back?

Well, the military says, not really. A military spokesman tells us they worried that the church that had sent them would turn around and send them to another organization in Afghanistan, giving the impression that they'd been distributed by the U.S. government. So the decision was made to throw the bibles away.

And in war zones, U.S. troops are required to burn their trash. A U.S. military spokesman says they understand the sensitivities of Christians here, that this was not an easy decision, but they had to do this force protection -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Is there any indication that any of these bibles were actually distributed to the local population?

TODD: The military says they have no evidence so far that the bibles made it off of Bagram Air Force Base. The soldier who had gotten them did not know that he was not supposed to distribute them. A military chaplain on base corrected that soldier and confiscated the bibles. As far as they know, they never made it off the base.

BLITZER: Brian Todd, thanks very much for that story.

You have to ask yourself when Obama, Hilary, Petraeus, Gates, the FBI and who knows who else can lean on this pastor, what will be next? Who will be next? What won't you be able to say? I am just asking here as I am more than a little concerned.

Pakistan's Main Spy Agency Still Supports Taliban

Forgive the rapid fire Afghanistan, Taliban, Pakistan blogs but things happen so fast in our world it is hard to keep up. My article on Karzai and this one on the ISI should help you to see that it is naive to think we can make any real difference in these countries. If the Pakistanis are training the Taliban and we are sending billions to Pakistan, aren’t we in fact paying people to strengthen our enemies? Read this excerpt from the London School of economics:

But the report issued Sunday by the London School of Economics offered one of the strongest cases that assistance to the group is official ISI policy, and even extends to the highest levels of the Pakistani government.

“Pakistan’s apparent involvement in a double-game of this scale could have major geopolitical implications and could even provoke U.S. countermeasures,” said the report, which was based on interviews with Taliban commanders, former Taliban officials, Western diplomats and many others.

“Without a change in Pakistani behavior it will be difficult, if not impossible, for international forces and the Afghan government to make progress against the insurgency,” said the report, written by Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

If this doesn’t give you pause once again, then what will? As trusting as American’s are we have allowed ourselves to elect the most radical president in history. We have allowed him to destroy the very foundation of our Nation and we deny his loyalties to everything but the America we know and love.

There is no doubt but what the American Military can accomplish anything they are truly commissioned to do. Given the time, the tools and the commitment they will bring about the results desired. Hamstrung and hindered by political maneuvers will result in their death and defeat. Just this past Friday this statement threw our entire military under the bus.

“A panel commissioned by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is recommending nearly $1 trillion in cuts to the Pentagon’s budget during the next 10 years”

Thank God for our troops abroad but how can they succeed with the Rules they have been given and the support that is being withheld. If that is not disturbing enough, how is it that these things go on without mention? It is like a huge puddle of oil in the gulf that no one sees for weeks. You have to wonder how this plays into these Leftist’s plans.

Obama Duped! Karzai to join Taliban!

Behind Karzai is a long history of corruption and deceit. His brother is the Opium king of Afghanistan and Karzai’s honesty and allegiance have always been in question. Instead of the Obama administration recognizing their ally was the devil they instead put all their faith that this Satan would eliminate corruption. It would appear that foreign policy experience would be a good quality in a president; particularly when that president thinks he can win a war without bullets.

Moreover, Karzai signaled that he was upset with the Obama Administration just months ago after Barry met with him personally and hurt his feelings. After that meeting in April of this year, Karzai stated that he would align with the Taliban. He was corrupt and deceptive then and he never changed. The only change is the time. He was and is an evil and weak leader entrusted by our weak and possibly evil leader Obama. Perhaps he never learned in that “Christian” church of his that you cannot make a “silk purse out of a sow’s ear” or “to cast not your pearls before swine”.

All of this misplaced trust of Obama has only cost us months, lives, and suffering in and for Afghanistan. Before we didn’t know for sure who to trust; now our soldiers are in between the Devil and his Disciples. We have adopted this philosophy to change (notice CHANGE) the hearts and minds of the Afghani people. We want them to trust us, our ways, our words, and our efforts. We did tell them however that we won’t be there later to protect them and that the Taliban will return to lop their heads off but we did take the softer approach. In the meantime: Trust Us!

Fighting any war is a terrible undertaking. Fighting one that you cannot or will not win is simply insane. Fighting one where you want all sides to love you is beyond comprehension. Surely the phone has rang at 3am and gone unanswered. It rang again at 3:15am, and 3:30, and etc… Even now the ringer goes unsilenced. The American people have made a mistake and our Commander in Chief is anything but. He is an Entertainer in Chief, or a Partier in Chief, or even a Vacationer in Chief but he leads no one. He has failed at every opportunity to lead in government, in the gulf, in immigration, and in Governing. Sadly he is so narcissistic that when Barry looks behind him he imagines the millions that follow him but they are not there. He cannot see that for he knows that he is “the One”. Unfortunately he is the one who leads us into the ambush, the making of his own errors. Peril awaits us but still Barack pushes on.

The Barry O Show on every friggin' channel...

Okay so they caught Obama with a copy of GQ featuring himself on the cover. Does that make him vainglorious? Of itself, probably not but his habit of running to the TV camera every-time he has something to say is a bit much. He pardoned a turkey and made and appearance to tell us how committed he is.

Yet, General McCrystal has been waiting months for an answer to his troop request and he can wait just a bit longer so Barak can reveal to the world his long awaited strategy on Tuesday evening during primetime. As I understand it, it will be a 45 minute speech complete with an exit strategy. Perhaps he plans to talk the Taliban and Al Qaeda to death. In the meantime the Brits are looking for their own exit strategy of having lost confidence in America’s prosecution of this war.

Add to this the upcoming Oprah-Obama Christmas special and let the self-aggrandizing behavior abound. Dang. Forgive me if I chuckle out loud just a little at this: “Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special”. This festive soiree will include interview with the president, a conversation with the First Couple and tour of the White House. Oh goodie! We get one of our presents early. Be sure to set your clocks to snooze. All this news comes on the heels of Oprah’s 18 month notice that she will be quitting her show. Perhaps she and Barry will change jobs as she has been so actively involved of late in politics and he in TV.

My dad used to say that Fish and House Guests both begin to stink after 3 days. While not exactly parallel to Barry’s situation I do admit his incessant presence on my TV stinks to high heaven. Barry if you are listening shut up already and do something that helps us. We don’t want to see your face we want to see jobs and smaller government. We want honesty and transparency. We want our freedoms and we want to keep what we earn. We want to be charitable on our own without your dictates and we want to worship God, in public, without shame, legally, and not according to the wacky few. We want a Republic and we want Health Care reform that isn’t loaded with your Socialist agenda.

You know I said we want. Let me rephrase: We insist! We even demand it!