I am responding to the column by Susan Stamper-Brown asserting that Obama owes the military an apology.
The salient, and only relevant, facts are that the military burned the Quran and impassioned Muslims responded by killing Americans. That is the reality to which Obama, responding to the outrage and the killing apologized to protect our troops.
Brown’s ideologically-driven impassioned attack on Obama may warm, if not inflame, the emotions of those who hate Obama and blame him for everything from hang nails to high oil prices, but such tirades serve no good purpose.
I do not believe we should have combat troops in Afghanistan. But our troops are there. I believe that the violent reaction of some Muslims is irrational. But the reality is that our troops are there and outrage is real.
The president must deal with realities, not ideological pipe dreams. Apologies may not calm the outrage, but apologies certainly do not inflame outrage.
I have a grandson in Iraq. If apologies, whether or not justified by the facts, will save him from harm, let us all apologize. Apologies cost nothing. Brown would, apparently, rather vent irrational rage, at least as unjustified as that of the Muslims, than to protect her family members. Hopefully, Brown’s family members will not pay the ultimate price for her irrational egotism.
Grant Hubbard
Apache Junction
