Why Do Our Soldiers Fight?

Update: In an attempt to be more effective in making my point, I have approached the same topic from a different angle here.


Most readers have probably heard of Terry Jones, the pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida, who organized International Burn a Quran Day for September 11.

Although burning Korans is not to my taste, I’m glad I live in America, where a citizen has a right to burn a lawfully purchased copy of a book on his own property if he wants to.

However, General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. operations in Afghanistan, doesn’t agree. He thinks the actions of Rev. Jones and his followers may cause the death of American troops in Afghanistan.

Here’s what ABC News has to say about it:

A Florida pastor’s plan to burn Qurans at his church on Sept. 11 ignited a protest today by hundreds of Afghans, who burned American flags and shouted “Death to America,” and the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the preacher could be increasing the threat to his troops.

The crowd in downtown Kabul reached nearly 500 today, with Afghan protesters chanting “Long live Islam “ and “Long live the Quran,” and burning an effigy of Terry Jones, senior pastor from the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida who is planning the event.

The protesters were well aware of the pastor’s inflammatory comments, such as the “Islam is an evil religion,” since they have been spread wide on the Internet. Jones has also authored a book, “Islam Is of the Devil.”

The protesters’ anger wasn’t limited to Jones, however. Chants of “Death to America” echoed through the crowd, and U.S. flags were set ablaze alongside the effigy of Jones.

America cannot eliminate Muslims from the world,” one Afghan man told ABC News.

The angry crowd pelted a passing U.S. military convoy with rocks.

Gen. David Petraeus said he is outraged by the pastor’s decision to burn the Quran, which he said could “endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort here.”

Former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Jack Keane, an adviser to Petraeus, called it “outrageous” and “insulting to Muslims.”

“It’s also insulting to our soldiers in terms of what they stand for and what their commitment is to this country and to the Muslims in this country,” Keane told ABC News.

Now, I don’t want to debate the merits of burning Korans. That’s not the point of this post.

What I want to talk about is the presence of American troops in Afghanistan, and what they are there to do.

Are they fighting and dying to avoid “insulting Muslims”?

What does our military stand for? Does it stand for protecting Islam from insult? Or does it stand for protecting the rights and the well-being of American citizens?

Here’s what David Petraeus would have said if he were a real soldier in the mold of, say, General George Patton, rather than a lickspittle dhimmi appeaser of heroin-trafficking Afghan warlords:
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“I wouldn’t burn a Koran myself — but, then, that’s a matter of personal taste.

“Let me just say this: those people in Florida aren’t putting anyone at risk. The only people responsible for putting my troops at risk are those homicidal maniacs who froth at the mouth over what they call their ‘religion’.

“My boys are here to defend the American way of life, and they are fighting and dying to preserve the right of American citizens to burn any damn thing they feel like — except maybe the American flag.

“And as for those demonstrators on the streets of Kabul — they can go to hell.”

But we don’t have generals like that anymore.

Our generals don’t win wars. They build nations.

They are tasked to win the hearts and minds of whatever godforsaken lice-infested child-molesting goatherds their fool of a commander-in-chief sends them out to protect.

This is what our “national defense” has become.

This is what all those billions and billions of our tax dollars do for us nowadays.

God help us all.