Koran burning endangers US troops...

Of course these idiots didn't think this one through that much, but this is example #1 of how we fuel what goes on over there. B-b-but "they hate us because we're free!" :rolleyes:

(CNN) -- The U.S. commander in Afghanistan on Monday criticized a Florida church's plan to burn copies of the Quran on September 11, warning that the demonstration "could cause significant problems" for American troops overseas.

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan," Gen. David Petraeus said in a statement issued Monday.

The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, plans to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington by burning copies of the Muslim holy book. The church insists the event is "neither an act of love nor of hate" toward individual Muslins, but the event has drawn criticism from Muslims in the United States and overseas.

Sunday, thousands of Indonesians gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta to protest the planned burning, leaders urging the U.S. government to step in and stop the event.

The Florida church's event is planned for the upcoming anniversary of the September 11 attacks by the al Qaeda terrorist group. In a statement on its website, the Dove World Outreach Center said it plans to burn Qurans "to warn about the teaching and ideology of Islam, which we do hate as it is hateful."

The center said that although it plans to burn Qurans, its animus is not aimed at individual Muslims. "We love, as God loves, all the people in the world and we want them to come to a knowledge of the truth," it states.

But with about 120,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops still battling al Qaeda and its allies in the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement, Petraeus warned that burning Qurans "is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems -- not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

And one of his deputies, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, told CNN's "The Situation Room" that the event "has already stirred up a lot of discussion and concern" among Afghans.

"We very much feel that this can jeopardize the safety of our men and women that are serving over here in the country," said Caldwell, the head of NATO efforts to train Afghan security forces.

Caldwell said American troops "are over here to defend the rights of American citizens, and we're not debating the First Amendment rights that people have." But he added, "What I will tell you is that their very actions will in fact jeopardize the safety of the young men and women who are serving in uniform over here and also undermine the very mission that we're trying to accomplish."

"I would hope they would understand that there are second- and third-order effects that will occur that will affect that young man and woman who's out there on point for America, serving their nation today, because of their actions back in the United States," he said.

Quran-burning could endanger troops, Petraeus warns - CNN.com