THE chief architect of the catastrophe that is Iraq today has issued a grovelling apology.
Not for the fact that his multi-billion dollar adventure has gone quite horribly wrong; not for the fact that thousands of innocent lives have been lost; not for the fact that Iraq has been plunged back into the Dark Ages of competing religious fanaticisms; and certainly not for the fact that women now routinely suffer terrible punishments – even death – for “un-Islamic” dress and behaviour.
No, the ghastly, soon-to-be-gone religious wacko we call President George W Bush begged forgiveness because a US soldier shot up a Koran.
Yes. A damn book. Filled with the fantasies of a crazy “prophet”. And made of paper, cardboard and glue!
President Bush, according to the New York Times, yesterday apologised to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for an American sniper’s use of a copy of the Koran for target practice,
White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush told the Prime Minister that he took the matter seriously, and he noted that the soldier had been reprimanded and removed from Iraq by his commanders.
A statement issued by al-Maliki’s office said the Prime Minister told Bush of the ”disappointment and anger of the people and government of Iraq over the soldier’s disgraceful action”. The statement added that Bush told al-Maliki that the sniper would face trial.
Earlier, responding to an episode ripe with the potential to stoke unrest, the commander of US troops in Iraq, Maj Gen Jeffery Hammond, held a meeting with Iraqi leaders. He said:
I come before you here seeking your forgiveness. In the most humble manner, I look in your eyes today and I say, please forgive me and my soldiers.
General Hammond also read a letter of apology from the soldier, who was not identified. In it he said:
I sincerely hope that my actions have not diminished the partnership that our two nations have developed together.
Another American officer kissed a Koran and gave it to the tribal leaders, according to news agency reports.
The US military said it had disciplined the sniper and removed him from Iraq after he was found to have used Islam’s holy book for target practice on May 9.
The copy of the Quran was found two days later by Iraqis on a firing range in Radwaniyah, west of Baghdad, with 14 bullet holes in it and graffiti written on its pages.
But some Iraqis want more than an apology. The Iraqi Islamic Party issued a tough statement saying that an apology alone was not enough and the US military should impose the ‘’severest punishment” on the soldier to ensure others do not repeat his act.
Now would that be a stoning, or the amputation of his head?
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If I had a gun and a Koran I’d pump it so full of holes right now along with a Bible, Torah, Communist Manifesto, and any other book of propaganda and lies that people use as an excuse to justify their might makes right philosophy of hatred and immorality.
On the subject of ‘misuse’ of ‘holy books’…
our local prison has introduced a total ban on smoking - the only one in British Isles to do so and not unconnected to the influence of a teetotal, evangelical acting governor, I suspect. When the supply of legal fags stopped prisoners took to smoking dried teabags wrapped in pages of prison bibles. Probably the first recorded helpful use of those books in recent history.
BTW - just in case any smoker is unfortunate enough to get banged up, pages of the bibles issued to Catholics apparently make better ciggie papers.
No “apparently” about it, Stuart. I was introduced to bible-page spliff-rolling more than 30 years ago. Not in prison, I hasten to add. The very thin pages from the bible made excellent spliffs, and we enjoyed many a “holy smoke”.
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