Recently, copies of the Quran were disposed of in a fire pit at military base in Afghanistan. This incident caused a large protest that led to the deaths of four U.S. soldiers over a six day period. President Obama apologized for the burning. Press secretary Jay Carney said that the apology was "appropriate given the sensitivity" of the situation.
However, presidential candidate Santorum believes that this apology was unnecessary saying, "The response needs to be apologized for by (President Hamid) Karzai and the Afghan people for attacking and killing our men and women in uniform and overreacting to this inadvertent mistake," on NBC's "Meet the Press". "That is the real crime here, not what our soldiers did." The president's apology suggests that there is blame and that the U.S. did something wrong "in the sense of doing a deliberate act," Santorum said.
I can see a case for both sides of this issue. But I would like to see what other people think about it. Should Obama have apologized? Ideally he wouldn't need to, because it was an accident, and as Santorum said it suggests that the U.S. is to blame for doing something wrong. But on the other side of the issue, this is a very sensitive situation where a lot more violence could be incited against the soldiers in Afghanistan. Apologizing may quell some of the violence against our troops because it shows that it was a regrettable event and that we do respect their culture and religion.
As an ex-Christian and an ex-Muslim, I see both sides of the issue too. However, I do believe what Santorum said was wrong and will lead to more attacks against us. I find the republicans highly stupid and dividing us as a country over statements like that. Islam isn't the enemy,Christianity isn't the enemy; it's radicalism on all sides that is the problem and leads to all this mess.
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