President Barack Obama is seen in this file photo.The Obama administration has now apologized repeatedly, both orally and in writing, for the accidental burning of a few Qurans by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
The Qurans -- Islam's holy book -- and some other religious materials had been removed from a detention facility in Afghanistan because detainees were writing inflammatory messages in them which were then communicated to other detainees. The materials should have simply been kept away from detainees but were mixed in by mistake with materials slated for incineration.
That is unfortunate and it is right to take steps to prevent such incidents from happening again.
But the response among radical Muslims in Afghanistan has been as disgusting and unjustified as it has been predictable. They are unmoved by the president's apologies, and as of this writing, roughly 40 people have been slaughtered in the days since the accidental Quran burnings. That number includes four U.S. soldiers.
The victims of the bloodshed in Afghanistan -- many of them civilians -- had nothing to do with the Quran incident, and it would be wrong to commit violence against them even if they had. Yet while the administration has issued multiple apologies for the Quran burnings, it refuses to take a clear-eyed view of the radical Muslim mindset that considers it acceptable to respond to inadvertent religious insults with deadly violence.
Some of the recent killings have been committed by the Taliban, which sheltered 9/11 terrorist Osama bin Laden. Yet the administration has actually opened the door to negotiations with the Taliban. The administration has also removed references to "Islamic extremism" from documents pertaining to national security. But it is not with radical Buddhism but with radical Islam that our nation is locked in battle.
We will not be able to defeat an enemy that we refuse to name.