Burning the Koran and other atrocities of ignorance

I’ve heard that somewhere in Florida some church is publically burning the Koran.  While, I suppose this is supported by our right to free speech, I can’t tell you enough how incredibly stupid this is.  I don’t care about the Koran, or Islam, or religion in general, but the problem with burning books is that you are destroying an object and not an idea.  

 Destroying a book won’t make that book go away.  There must be over  a billion Korans in the world and no one can destroy them all.  And even if you could, it’s not like one could destroy the ideas behind the Koran.  It’s not like you would end terrorism by destroying it either.  The only thing you are doing is offending people that might not have had a beef with you before. 

 I won’t go as far as to say that by burning the Koran that we are putting our troops in danger because, let’s face it, they already are in danger and I don’t think a terrorist or insurgent really needs another excuse to bring us harm, especially when Iran is paying them for an American body count.  Burning a book only makes you look ignorant, evil, and on the wrong side of the argument.  No book burner has ever won a debate. 

 Burning a book only makes it seem that the ideas inside are too powerful for you to take.  Burning a book only makes you seem intellectually inferior to the author of the book.  It doesn’t make you a hero, and I doubt that it is even an effective form of protest (much like burning the flag).  Burning a book means that you lack the mental fortitude to defeat its ideas with reason, logic, and peace.  It means that you have to turn toward brutality in order to win an argument.

 But you don’t win the argument.  Because for every book you burn there are thousands more to replace it.  Every book that is destroyed can be reprinted.  And therefore, by destroying an object you have martyred the ideas inside.  Those ideas cannot be destroyed by burning.  They can only be defeated by reason. 

 Those who turn to brutality are the intellectual losers.  Come on. Really.  Book burning?  You have to be kidding me. 

 If you truly have faith, then there is no book burning necessary.  The truth will set you free.  Not burning.

Israel Gets the Green Light to Attack Iran

The latest news on the Iran nuclear threat is that our Vice President gave a sovereign nation (Israel) the green light to conduct military operations to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat. Here are some of the words Biden said on the topic…

Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else. Whether we agree or not. They’re entitled to do that. Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that. But there is no pressure from any nation that’s going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed. — Vice President Biden

What I find to be very interesting about all of this is that he said it as if we didn’t already know this. Everything he said is quite obvious to the rest of us. As with almost everything else that comes out of his mouth, this new round of telling us what we already know seems a bit ostentatious.

For those that don’t already know, Israel bombed a French built nuclear rector being built in Iraq in 1981 just prior to it going operational. The nuclear rector would have been capable of producing nuclear weapons had it gone operational. Israel, knowing this was a direct threat to their continued existence, took matters into their own hands and eliminated the threat.

Regardless of how Biden’s statement comes across, it does come at an interesting time while Iran is still in turmoil over their recent elections. What better time to attack when a percentage of Iran’s military and security forces are busy killing protesters and their families? Are we going to see a nation take matters into their own hands and eliminate a growing threat to their existence? I, for one, hope so!

Iran poses a threat not only to Israel but the world. The United Nations has lost all credibility and ability to actually do anything useful many years ago so we cannot expect them to do anything about it. With our current President we cannot even begin to hope that we will do anything within time to save anyone. So that  leaves it to Israel to do the world a favor and take care of the growing thread to the world.

Support for the Iranian Counterrevolution.

As we go on about our daily lives the good people of Iran are being oppressed. Their government set up a phony election and gave them a phony result. We don’t need to go into the logistical impossibilities of counting 44 million votes in a matter of minutes, that’s barely the point. What must be noted is that the people of Iran were outraged by this and started to (rightfully so) protest in anger. The Iranian government first responded by trying to beat their people into submission and then, when that didn’t work, by shooting them into submission. I am proud to say though they have not been subdued as of yet.

If we as a country really respect freedom we should support the people of Iran as they rise up against their theocratic oppressors. Our government should be offering its support for a truly democratic Iran which is ruled by laws, not religions, not kings or clerics, but just laws that protect the rights of all, including women and children. Our government does not seem to be doing this, instead they are enacting caution.

It’s hard to blame someone for being cautious, but at what point do we stop playing the “let’s see who wins” game and start taking real sides. If we play this game as we did in Iraq in the 1980’s and 1990’s then the totalitarian regime will be able to repress the democratic momentum as was done in Iraq when we offered our support and then stayed our hand at the last moment. Thousands of Kurds were killed and we did nothing for a decade. It’s no wonder that so many nations feel as they do about the United States. We’re all talk. And when we do act its usually a decade or two too late.
But now it’s worse. We’re not even talking. We’re not even offering our support to the counterrevolution in Iran. It needs support. It needs to know that we are with them. They are encouraged by the results in Iraq. They see that freedom is a true possibility.