Flushing the Koran?

There have been a lot of reports lately about rioting in Afghanistan after a Newsweek report was that US soldiers had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet to intimidate Muslim suspects in Guantanamo Bay. This rioting has resulted in at least 15 deaths and many injuries. Newsweek is now backing off of that report.

Last Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told us that a review of the probe cited in our story showed that it was never meant to look into charges of Qur'an desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them "not credible." Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts. Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we. But we regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst.

Andrew Sullivan (it's in his Quote Of The Day II) talks about what I think is the most important part of this story.

It is perfectly conceivable, given the torture policies promoted and permitted by this president, that desecration of the Koran has taken place in Guantanamo. Many other insane and inhumane interrogation tactics have turned out to be true. Remember smearing fake menstrual blood? We are in a critical war for world opinion. A critical part of our message is that this is not a war against Islam as such, but against Islamo-fascism and terror. And yet we see the religious right co-opting air force academies, and we hear of incidents like the alleged toilet-flush of the Koran. Since no one is ever held responsible for anything in the Bush administration, we can be sure this incident will be lied about, covered up or blamed on some poor military grunt who can be easily scapegoated. But at some point, we will have to confront the severe damage this administration has done to American prestige and credibility in a critical global battle of ideas because of its interrogation policies. These are self-inflicted wounds. Even if this incident turns out to be false, our previous policies have made it perfectly plausible. That is the shame - and the terrible gift from this administration to Osama bin Laden. [Emphasis added]

All of these problems were known or predicted during last summer's election season. Why was it only on blogs that I saw these issue being debated? There was a real question about whether or not American credibility was important or not, and that question was largely ignored. (There were lots of other important questions that were ignored, like when and under what circumstances should US military force should be deployed - in a place like Darfur? in Iran? Syria? North Korea? What are the differences between these countries and Iraq?)

The president has said that the way that the world views the US is important, so important that he appointed one of his closest advisors, Karen Hughes, to be in charge of public diplomacy. It is so important that she will not get started until the fall! The position of Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy has been vacant since last summer.

However, public diplomacy is not the crux of the matter. If "freedom is on the march" and US policy is to spread democracy, we must credibly deal with the widespread view that we support torturing people in our custody.