Sunday, May 18, 2008
American Sniper Uses Quran for Target Practice
According to recent news brought by Yahoo( http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080518/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq) a American soldier has been kicked out of Iraq by U.S. millitary commanders for using a Quran as a practice target. The Quran was found on May 11th by Iraqi police, with 14 bullet holes. In a apology ceremony, a U.S. commanding officer kissed a new copy of a Quran in front of a local Sunni tribe in hopes of preventing escalation in reaction to the actions of the American sniper. Though the apology was accepted, it isn't the first time American soldiers have abused the Iraqi people and customs. The U.S. millitary emphasizes that co-operation with Sunni tribes is vital for succes in Iraq. If U.S. soldiers continue to offend Sunni tribes, then they will be less likely to work with U.S. forces. Will the recent abuses and other events influence the U.S. to finally begin the process of leaving Iraq? To what extent will Sunni tribes co-operate with the U.S.?
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14 comments:
Shooting the Quran is like shooting the Bible, and no matter how you put it, its a disgraceful and disrespectful act. I know some soldiers who have come back from Iraq. One of them told me when your over there your mindset completely changes. A lot of the soldiers develop hostility towards the civilians in general, disregarding who is 'bad' and who is 'good,' so I can see why maybe the sniper had a lot of pent up frustration and over time his respect for their culture has worn down, but that still doesn't justify his actions. I think cooperation is one of the most important keys for success in Iraq, and the US (and soldier) is lucky that the Sunnis accepted the apology because if they didn't it could have created more fighting and unnecessary deaths.
The shooting of the Quran was most likely a pretty stupid mistake and the soldier should get the consequences but this doesn't seem like the type of thing that will start the evacuation of soldiers. This doesn't seem that bad. The Sunni tribes most likely take some offense to the U.S for this incident but not go ballistic. The Sunni's will probably co-operate with the U.S as they have been and not make this that big of a deal.It probably wont happen again.
After the discovery of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. millitary in 2004, it was assured that nothing of the sort would happen again and that the U.S. millitary would respect the Iraqi people and their custom. It is appearant that with the recent misuse of the Quran that this promise was shortlived. I have to disagree with Pat in saying that it probably won't be the last time Iraqi people and custom will be offended or abused.
It's not like he couldn't have chosen to shoot something else, shooting the Quran was obviously a purposeful choice. The soldier should probably be punished for doing something that could very easily incited the locals and probably already has made them dislike the U.S. soldiers, if they didn't already.
wow people can be really rude sometimes! even if they dont agree with someone's belief's they have no right to do something as mean as shooting their holy book whether it be a bible or quran or whatever....
looking back this soldier probably feels stupid but should be punished for his actions. i agree with carlo that this wont be the last time the iraqi's will be offended.
if the government wants to continue this war then maybe they should be putting respectful soldiers in iraq, not ones who will make the iraqi people more hostile towards americans.
This is just so ridiculous! Was it necessary to shoot the Quran? Of course not! I mean how many other inanimate objects that dont have a holy/religious association are there? Just because the sniper might have been fed up with dealing with the Iraqis as enemies doesnt give him the right to disrespect the entire religion.
I don't think this will change a thing. Quite honestly, those that have chosen sides have chosen sides - a couple insidents of bad behavior on both sides won't have an effect on a war that has been going on for over 5 years - I just don't see it happening.
I disagree with a few previous posts. The fact is, we dont want the Iraqi people, or the Sunni tribes choosing sides, we want them to choose our side, so we can get the hell out of there. But then some idiot soldier thought it would be "fun" to shoot the Quran, and now the Iraqi people are that much farther away from choosing our side.
We want the Iraqi people to trust us and help us help them take back control of their country; if we spit, or shoot, at what they value as the end all be all script, we aren't helping the cause.
Compared to the US's philosophy, the Middle Eastern people look like extremists, and extremists take everything seriously, that's why they are extremists.
The shooting of the Quaran showed the complete disrespect that so many soldiers have for the Iraqi people. He did a horrible thing and he should be punished for it, if that soldier was a Christian...how would he feel if a soldier in Iraq shot the Bible? If the sniper was feeling frusturated or angry about the war, there are much better ways for dealing with anger than shooting someone's Holy book. In all ways, he did a very wrong thing
Like Victoria said, defiling the Quran is the same as defiling the Bible. Officers are making the situation worse by letting these events happen especially when everyone hates us already. We need to learn how to respect other traditions and people particularly when we are the ones enforcing laws in foreign countries in hopes that people will actually follow them. How can we expect anyone to respect us if we can’t respect them?
Although shooting such a holy book is a very disrespectful act, I really don't believe a soldier would do it just to disrespect a whole religion. He probably just did it to practice his shooting. Anyways, the US should evacuate Iraq regardless what happens. We have overstayed our welcome and it isn't worth using so many of our resources to fix another country. We should focus on issues on our homeland instead.
Although what the soldier did was disrespectful and could have led to an escalation in violence, I really can't blame him for doing it. If you were being shot at all day and night by those who use the Quran as their inspiration for doing so you probably wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing.
Whoa. Ok. So imagine in the united states if a man sat on the corner of the street and burned a bible. No one would do anything. It would not be a big deal. No one would get arrested, and if someone actually did attack the man burning the bible, they would be arrested for being an extremist.
Yes, I agree that shooting a Quran is disrespectful, and considering the situation, it was a very stupid thing to do considering the people that the US are coaxing for alliances with are extremists.
This kind of reminds me of two years ago when there was a political cartoon of a Muslim prophet's turban as a bomb. Yes, it was a terribly offensive and disrespectful cartoon HOWEVER the response to the act was more than it should have been. There are offensive political cartoons of people from every race and background, and we don't see riots all over the world and lots of people dying over it. Yes, I don't think that people should be doing these terrible things, but I think that someone has too much of a sensitive spot. I don't believe you shouldn't kill people on account of a cartoon. Or a book.
I don't think it's possible to send respectable soldiers to Iraq. How can they respect a religion that justifies killing us? We can fake respect as much as we have to in front of cameras if that's what'll end all this, but I don't think that will solve anything anyways.
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