Marine's handout of Bible verse coin riles Iraqis

techstepgenr8tion · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:44 pm Post subject:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/365152_troops30.html

So what's your take on this?

I think they absolutely did the right thing in removing the guy. Why's that? Its the nature of the war and of the situation. Iraq is a Muslim country, secular albeit to an extent but Muslim nonetheless. The whole idea, if we are to be able to keep the peace it means keeping our allies in that country of the understanding that we absolutely aren't there to convert. I understand the guy did it in good intent but it was a really poor judgment call. I think most Christians understand why as well, someone salvation (via whatever religion that may be) is something between them and God. In that sense, particularly when it takes a lot of restraint on their part to even have us there as non-muslims, we need to be sure we're getting the message across that our being there is our taking responsibility for the fact that yes - we toppled a dictator, yes, they have thousands of foreigners from other countries rolling in and killing other muslims; in that sense we're training their police force to deal with that, training their intelligence to handle it, and training their military. Iraq of course is the cradle of civilization, the place where Mesopotamia once stood, and they have a lot of national identity worth celebrating; we don't at all want to send the wrong idea on that and endanger the bigger picture over compulsions.

Its a small story, one that's gotten a lot of press but fortunately was a slight enough incident to serve as a wake up call and reminder to our ground forces not to be evangelists.