Why I stand by the President and the American military...

I'm only going to blog for a moment, here:):):)...

We're in the middle of Ray on the first day of my first three day vacation in a LONG TIME:):):):):):)...

The President and the military are in something of a pickle, right now...

I've seen at least 5 independent confirmations of the Koran desecration story...Washington Post...The Independent Online...The New York Times...Andrew Sullivan...National Public Radio...The Online Newshour...Yahoo News...

...and the Administration has admitted at least 5 cases of abuse...

Andrew Sullivan asks a great question...

If the Administration didn't approve of this desecration at as a policy (which 2003 military documents that I've seen reported on seem to indicate they did not) then why does the Administration argue that what was happening was within "standard operating procedures"?...

What do I think?...

Because the Administration is trying to do the RIGHT thing...

To be loyal to their -- our -- military...

And I'm with him...

I don't want the Koran abused ideally...as the military documents that I've seen quoted from indicate was far from ideal military policy as well (the documents that I saw reported on indicated that the Koran should be treated like a "fragile piece of delicate art")...

US military memo banned Koran desecration at Guantanomo

But the President is doing the right thing to be loyal to these soldiers (althought at least interrogator appears to have been disciplined)...

As any good commanding officer should be...

I don't want official policy of the U.S. government to be that it is ok to desecrate the Koran...

But what is SO GREAT about America is that we have learned better than Afghanistan and most more traditional and traditional Islamic societies is that the reality often falls far from the ideal...

And we stick by one another anyway...

And the President is doing the right thing to stick by soldiers when they fall from the ideal...

And he needs our and my and everyone's support on this one...

We want the Muslim world and traditional societies to be MORE like America and Europe and democratic societies...we want the standards of democratic societies to get MORE authentic and democratic and free...NOT LESS democratic and free and authentic, as are the standards in places like Afghanistan...

And the BEST decision, here, is to STAND BY OUR SOLDIERS...they may not be perfect...but neither are any of us...and they need our support, right now...

Muslims in Afghanistan and all over the world need to learn to tolerate the descecration of the Koran...just as we expect Americans and others to tolerate the desecration of the Bible and the American flag...

And we need to send the signal that we are LEADING THE WORLD...not following its worst instincts...

...including revenge for the desecration of a holy book...

Afghan clerics threatened a religious jihad for this desecration...their deadline has passed by more than a week...many Muslim countries have rules that make the death penalty the punishment for the desecration of the Koran...

And we should hold ourselves and those countries to a HIGHER STANDARD...NOT A LOWER ONE...

And that standard should be that even when military interrogators engage in abuse of the Koran...

They should NOT be punished...they should be CRITICIZED...

I'm going to get back to the movie, here:):):):):)...and I'll blog on this more, later:):):):):):):)...

Have a great Memorial day weekend, everyone:):):):):)...

Love,
Ben