COMMENTARY | An incident has occurred in Afghanistan that demands an apology. It is not the inadvertent burning of Korans, which has been desecrated by a group of Taliban prisoners who wrote incendiary messages in them -- contrary to Islamic law.
President Barack Obama has already issued an apology for the burning of the Korans to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, according to CNN, including a promise to hold those responsible accountable.
That means that some unfortunate American servicemen are going down in order to appease Afghan rage.
So far Afghans have not been appeased, as they have continued to riot. An Afghan soldier, trained by Americans, turned his American-provided weapon on two American servicemen and murdered them. That is the incident for which the apology is demanded. But it may not be forthcoming.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, doing the job that Obama refuses to do, has demanded an apology for the murder of two Americans who had gone to Afghanistan to fight for the freedom of its people on her Facebook page. The Associated Press reports that Newt Gingrich, while on campaign, has demanded an apology for the slain Americans as well. Gingrich suggested that Obama is more interested in appeasing these Islamist radicals and that if Karzai does not apologize, it may be time for Americans to depart Afghanistan and leave that unhappy country to its own fate.
Hot Air's Allahpundit artfully suggests that the left will be torn between excusing these Islamist fanatics because "it's their culture" and suggesting that the slain Americans deserved what they got for being occupiers.
One is hard pressed to decide with who to be more outraged at, the Islamists who seem to combust at the least provocation or the liberals like Obama who coddle them. It is quite all right to have due consideration for an alien culture and religion. But respect should be a two way street. If Afghans cannot bring themselves to respect the Americans who have sacrificed so much for a country not their own, especially to the extent of not shooting them, then perhaps it may be time to pull out and to suppress any reestablishment of Afghanistan as a terrorist safe haven with air and missile strikes. It is not as if ten years of campaigning does not constitute trying. But one does not have to be a Ron Paul isolationist to wonder if enough is enough.
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