Reputations are a precious and fragile thing, and as a teenager I am painful aware of this sometimes. However, the value of reputations does not change with age, even the most elite and sophisticated institutions depend on their reputations for legitimacy. Unfortunately the reputation of one of America's most prized institutions, our military, is under attack after the recent
Quran burning and
massacre in Afghanistan.
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| Protests resulting from the Quran burning. |
The US military has not had a particularly stunning reputation, but the two most recent events in Afghanistan have sparked outrage and deadly protests from the Afghan people. The first event, the Quran burning seems to be an instance of cultural ignorance. NATO officers were destroying the Qurans because they came from a detention center and prisoners had been using them to pass coded notes to one another. It was not meant to disrespectful to the Muslim faith, but merely a security measure. The public however was outraged when they heard of the "Americans burning Qurans". Protesters swarmed to the NATO base trying to break down the gates. President Obama issued an apology, but many in the states, like this
blog post argued the books were American property so we could destroy them however we wanted. Although I see the logic of the argument, I think this is just another example of cultural insensitivity. One could not burn an American flag in America to get rid of it without inciting rage from patriotic neighbors.
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| The aftermath of the massacre. |
The details of the second event remain unclear. Several days ago a US soldier left a NATO base in the middle of the night, walked a mile into a local village and went on a killing spree resulting in the death or 16 people. Some were brutally murdered and others were gunned down, afterwards her burned the bodies. He then returned to the base and essential turned himself in as the story goes. The
Taliban attacked an Afghan delegation visiting the site in retaliation.
Obviously both of these events have had a negative impact on the perception of the US military in Afghanistan and world wide. It is a shame given that there are
1,430,985 active US military personnel worldwide*, that the actions of 4 or 5 people create the global perception of our military. I hope President Obama will make a serious effort to promote the noble things the military does, but also still apologize for these events.
It's ironic how people think the same way. Many Americans generalize all Muslims as terrorists while there are millions of peaceful Muslims, and now Muslims in the Middle East are perceive the US military as cruel and barbaric while over a million of them are not. Another vicious circle.
