A week later, this essay still resonates: Andrew C. McCarthy in NRO: Why Apologize to Afghanistan?

A week later, after reading many other articles about what's been going on in Afghanistan that either just beat around the bush or which -surprise- made excuses for President Obama, this essay still resonates for a reason:

National Review Online         

Why Apologize to Afghanistan?

By Andrew C. McCarthy

February 25, 2012 4:00 A.M.

We have officially lost our minds.

The New York Times reports that President Obama has sent a formal letter of apology to Afghanistan’s ingrate president, Hamid Karzai, for the burning of Korans at a U.S. military base. The only upside of the apology is that it appears (based on the Times account) to be couched as coming personally from our blindly Islamophilic president — “I wish to express my deep regret for the reported incident. . . . I extend to you and the Afghani people my sincere apologies.” It is not couched as an apology from the American people, whose frame of mind will be outrage, not contrition, as the facts become more widely known.

The facts are that the Korans were seized at a jail because jihadists imprisoned there were using them not for prayer but to communicate incendiary messages. The soldiers dispatched to burn refuse from the jail were not the officials who had seized the books, had no idea they were burning Korans, and tried desperately to retrieve the books when the situation was brought to their attention.

Read the rest of the post at 

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/291925/why-apologize-afghanistan-andrew-c-mccarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy column homepage at NRO: http://www.nationalreview.com/author/52265

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The Washington Post
Conflicting accounts emerge over Quran burnings at base in Afghanistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/5-us-troops-could-face-review-conflicting-reports-over-quran-burnings-at-base-in-afghanistan/2012/03/03/gIQADm1VoR_story.html

Just wondering: If private security firms are dis-banded in Afghanistan, who will protect the news media that's not embedded?

The Washington Post
Karzai moves to disband private security firms in Afghanistan
By Joshua Partlow
Monday, August 16, 2010; 9:58 AM

KABUL -- President Hamid Karzai intends to disband all private security companies in Afghanistan within four months, his spokesman said Monday, a timeline that likely will meet with strong resistance from NATO forces who rely heavily on the companies to provide security to convoys and installations across the country.

The announcement came as a surprise to U.S. military officials who have recently begun a review of their security contracts in an attempt to address the widespread allegations that such guards are unaccountable and that their reckless behavior inflames public sentiment against foreign forces

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/16/AR2010081602041.html

For more on the nexus of American diplomacy, the military and the intelligence agencies, see the Washington Post's Checkpoint Washington blog at
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkpoint-washington/

Their latest post is: Gates retiring? Don't bet on it.