Gen. Petraeus: Church's Planned Koran-burning Endangers the Troops

The ironically named "Dove World Outreach Center" said it will go forward with its planned 9/11 commemorative Koran-burning, even after the militia group "Right Wing Extreme" decided that a book burning might be a little bit too extreme.

Today General Petraeus gave Pastor Jones an excuse to cancel the event and still save face:

But with about 120,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops still battling al Qaeda and its allies in the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, Petraeus warned that burning Qurans "is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems -- not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

And one of his deputies, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, told CNN's "The Situation Room" that the event "has already stirred up a lot of discussion and concern" among Afghans.

"We very much feel that this can jeopardize the safety of our men and women that are serving over here in the country," said Caldwell, the head of NATO efforts to train Afghan security forces.

Caldwell said American troops "are over here to defend the rights of American citizens, and we're not debating the First Amendment rights that people have." But he added, "What I will tell you is that their very actions will in fact jeopardize the safety of the young men and women who are serving in uniform over here and also undermine the very mission that we're trying to accomplish."

Eesh. When the man leading the fight against the Taliban says you're acting "precisely" like them, it might be time to stop and reevaluate.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 06:13 PM

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