**Update: New information has come to light that the Qu’ran burning was done to prevent messages being sent between prisoners and those outside. It may also have to do with the fact that old, tattered copies of the book are required to be burned. Even with this new information, my argument still holds. It also has one added thought – U.S. military personnel should be smarter than to receive copies of the book from outside the base. The issue disappears if the U.S. provided copies of the book.**
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If there is one thing the U.S. has yet to grasp after two-hundred forty or so years it is an aptitude of basic foreign policy.
Once in a while, in the midst of overarching error, we get something right. I must extend a thank-you to Obama for apologizing to Hamid Karzai for the burning of copies of the Qu’ran on a military base in Afghanistan.
At the same time Ginrich’s reaction to Obama is nothing less than insolent pride, the all-too-familiar American vanity packaged within co-opted Conservatism’s City on a Hill exceptionalism. Whether there is a strain of radical Muslims fueling the protests is of rather little concern. The greater problem is that prior to 2001, Afghanistan, a very conservative culture, had next to no understanding of America other than hearsay of the power of our military. Since crossing their border to pursue the 21st century’s version of Pancho Villa, Afghans have much to justify their increasing dislike of America.
Gingrich, as well as Santorum and Romney, has a profound non-understanding of what Commander-in-Chief entails, Constitutionally speaking. As history currently stands, no American President has been given approval by the Congress to use the military since Truman. Some might cite the War Powers Act of 1973 but that legislation is wholly unconstitutional, granting power to the President that the Constitution expressly gives to the Congress alone. Thus, any would-be Commander-in-Chief who cites the War Powers Act as justification for intervention is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, punishable by impeachment. And, since no war since WWII has posed a real or feigned existential threat to the U.S., the President need not worry regarding ‘defending our borders’.
In any case, the rationale with which Bush 43 took us to war has been rendered moot with the killing of Osama Bin Laden last year. It is therefore high time not only to bring the troops home, but some of our guns could stand to be turned into plowshares.
