Joe Klein: Afghan Massacre

[babylonsister]

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2011/04/01/afghan-massacre/


Afghan Massacre

Posted by Joe Klein Friday, April 1, 2011 at 4:47 pm


The first thing that you need to know about the massacre of 12 people that took place in Afghanistan today is that Mazar-e-Sharif is not a particularly radical town. It is not Pashtun, it is not Taliban. It is so quiet that NATO dispatched the near-pacifist Germans to keep the peace there. And so today's massacre--in protest of the odious Terry Jones' burning of a Koran on March 20--may be only a taste of what we're going to see when the real religious fanatics get ginned up.

Jones has a right to burn the Koran. And Rick Warren has a right--no, more than a right: a moral responsibly--to blast Jones for the nitwit bigot he is, and to rally mainstream evangelicals against this profoundly disgusting, and extremely dangerous, act. Warren tries to stay out of the political spotlight and he is to be admired for that. But this is different and, as David Petraeus warned last time Jones threatened this sort of unChristian behavior, not just the lives of unarmed UN and other aid workers, but also of American troops, are at stake.

But there should be no confusion about this: Jones's act was murderous as any suicide bomber's. If there is a hell, he's just guaranteed himself an afterlifetime membership.

[catenary]

1. I'll happily condemn his actions because of their likely consequences

but that doesn't let the insane fundy Muslims who conducted the massacre off the hook either. There has been WAY too much attention in the media to the "koran burning" with an awful lot of effort put into not 'offending' any more of its worshippers. I wish every 'holy' book in the world would spontaneously ignite at the same moment.

[Arrowhead2k1]

6. Who said that it lets them off the hook?

Seriously, WHO? I am sick of hearing this, it's obvious that they are nuts too, which makes purposely provoking them a heck of a lot more dangerous and irresponsible.

[catenary]

13. I sure as hell didn't.

:eyes:

The point is that the media is falling all over itself excusing them.

[Arrowhead2k1]

16. I don't see anyone excusing the murdurers.

Just people trying to excuse the ones who incite them. :shrug:

[malaise]

2. I think we should send all the fundamentalists of all religions

to one place on earth and let them kill themselves.

Fuck all religion

[leftstreet]

3. +1

[devils chaplain]

5. +2

[catenary]

15. Amen! oops, I mean Right ON!

;-)

[Obamanaut]

4. Jones' act was NOT murderous. It was burning a book. Killing people

because a book was burned WAS the murderous act.

If they really believed the eye for eye, tooth for tooth stuff, they would have burned a bible in retaliation. Do not escalate, punish with a similar act.

A nut job is a nut job regardless of the religion he embraces.

[northernlights]

7. Jones' act was murderous in the same way that deliberately provoking

a psychopath is murderous.

It was murderous in the same way, for example, that a couple young assholes deliberately provoking a caged lioness named Tatiana was murderous.

It was as murderous as provoking a bear in the middle of a campground full of sleeping campers would be murderous.

Jones is as guilty as he would be if he yelled fire in a crowded theater. Freedom of speech is not freedom without license.

Jones knew *exactly* was he was doing. He knew what would happen as a result of his actions. He did it anyway. He is a fucking asshole murderer just as much as the ones who did the killing are.

[Obamanaut]

8. Our opinions differ. One guy burned a book, another killed several

people. A rational person who had his book burned would recognize killing several people in retaliation is extreme. Nutbaggery in action.

[northernlights]

9. the fact that the killers were irrational was known to Jones

yet he provoked them anyway. Deliberately. He is guilty of deliberately provoking irrational people to commit irrational acts. That is not exercising free speech. That is committing murder by proxy.

[Obamanaut]

12. It's an exercise in looking for reasons to put some hate on Terry Jones. Put

the blame on him and his book burning.

[catenary]

14. Irrational people do not need provocation. You are arguing against yourself.

...

[11 Bravo]

17. Your post has inflamed me. I go now to strangle a kitten. I hope you're happy.

[slipslidingaway]

10. First thought - Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Massacre:_The_Convoy_of_Death

Have not heard anything about the investigation from July 2009.

[spanone]

11. k&r