Much ado: "Koran abuse"

Austin Bay has a nice piece that goes behind the headlines. A recently-publicized internal investigation report confirms 5 incidents of "Koran abuse" by American guards at Gitmo (1 - deliberately kicked by a now-fired interrogator; 2 - stepped on by a guard who apologized; 3 - a two-word profanity written inside front cover; 4 - breaking water balloons splashing an unspecified number of Korans; 5 - a Koran inadvertenly splashed with urine by a US soldier relieving himself outside near an air vent). The same report confirms 15 incidents of "Koran abuse" by Gitmo prisoners themselves. Hmm. Lacking a bit of proportionality here? Anyone expect an AP headline: "15 Incidents of Koran Abuse by Gitmo Prisoners Confirmed"? Nah.

A few fanatics paid their respects to America on 9/11 by flying fully-gassed airliners with innocent passengers into buildings to achieve maximum terror effect and kill as many people as possible. I didn't appreciate that lack of respect for our country and what we hold dear. But I believe the proper response was not a riot in the streets, or kicking a Koran, or even kidnaping and beheading a Muslim for being Muslim. I believe the proper response was to hunt down and kill those responsible, and destroy their capability to do even more damage.

Perhaps the WaPo and MSM are striking back with the "5 incidents confirmed" story after Newsweek retracted its "flushed Koran" story because it was unconfirmed and resulted in deadly protests in Afghanistan and elsewhere. (Incidentally, one of the 15 incidents confirmed in the recent report included a prisoner attempting to flush his Koran down a toilet...)

So -- the Newsweek story sparked riots where Muslims were killed (presumably by other Muslims). So -- they killed each other (intentionally? negligently?) in the act of demanding respect for their holy book. Hmm. Extreme behavior? That's what our global war against terrorism is about: an armed response to extreme behavior. We are supposed to understand that we need to respect the Muslim holy book, or we may pay with our lives? We are supposed to understand that nihilistic slaughter of innocents is legitimate political protest to emerging democracy? We are supposed to understand that it's OK to behead hostages if we don't meet political demands of terrorists? But don't step on my holy book.

No. It's not about the holy book. It's about the violent fanatacism of a relative few that needs to be marginalized (not legitimized), beaten, and ultimately destroyed.