I’ve barely had time to post my own original “odd things that have happened to me” posts over the last week-and-change, let alone keep up with other folks’ blogs. But here’s a fine post from the Decrepit Old Fool on “Guantanamo, flushing Korans, Abu Gharib, and Bill Clinton’s zipper“:
I’m going to be a real bastard here and say: I really don’t care if someone flushed a Koran down the toilet at Guantanamo.
Really. I’ve lost count of the number of pictures I have seen over the years, of Muslim protesters burning American flags. The flag means a lot to me as a symbol of my country but if they hate us, they have a right to nonviolent expression. Sauce for the goose…
No, I don’t think anyone really flushed a book down the toilet because no toilet I’ve ever seen could flush a book. But it’s a lead-pipe cinch that Korans have been mistreated, and the Pentagon just released a statement that a guard “accidentally” urinated on a Koran through a vent. Once again, I don’t care.
And yet… if I were that soldier’s commanding officer, I’d punish him severely. Not out of respect for the book – I have none – but because what the soldier did was bad marketing. We’re never going to sell American ideals by pissing on their holy book. And we’re not going to win this war with guns, either. We need to make the sale.
The other elements of the title tie in later in the essay.