Why Is the U.S. Apologizing for Scorched Qurans
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We've come a long way since the days of the Global War on Terror. Frankly, the GWOT -- whatever that was supposed to mean (how do you fight against a tactic?) -- is so 10 years ago. "Terror," meanwhile, has morphed into "extremism," but that's only made things more unclear. We still don't know what it's all supposed to be about.

Until today.

Mr. and Mrs. America, boys and girls, welcome to the Global War on Quran-Burning, as led by the United States Masochists To Make the World Safe for Shariah (Islamic law).

If a column could have special effects, this is where piercing beams of sunlight would dispel clouds of confusion as pink bunnies jump up and down, squeaking, "That's it, that's it!" And a sigh of relief would spread across the happy valley ...

Or would it? If my title for the war our country has engaged us in is apt, have I described a cause most Americans support? I don't think so, but, of course, I don't claim to know the answer. That's partly because I see no upset in the land over the latest and greatest display of American dhimmitude -- the subservient state of Jews and Christians in thrall to Islamic law -- that we have witnessed in Afghanistan all week. Afghan Muslims have convulsed in rioting and killing (among other fatalities, two U.S. military personnel have been murdered by an Afghan army member) on word that Qurans and other religious materials were disposed of on a U.S. military base after authorities discovered the books were being used at Parwan prison in what the BBC said may have been "a secret Taliban message system."

You didn't hear about that last part? I'm not surprised. This crucial piece of the story -- the logical reason for the books' destruction -- is treated by the media, and also by the U.S. government, as secondary material. At least one unnamed "U.S. official" imparted this part of the story to the press (Reuters and AFP); unnamed "Afghan officials" have told the BBC the same thing. Judging by the gingerly way this news is being handled, it almost seems as if the perfectly logical rationale for the disposal of these materials is regarded as an embarrassment.