We just don't get it

Amazing. Here we go again with more alleged abuses at Gitmo. I've ranted about this before, but—the issue of whether or not this is a widespread problem or not aside—all it takes is a handful of guards and interrogators making poor decisions with the prisoners to incite a worldwide protest.

I mean, come on, throwing a Quran into a bag of wet towels? That may seem like a little thing to you and me, but that's just more fuel to the fire of anti-American sentiment overseas. And urinating on the side of the building next to an air vent attached to a detainee's cell? (The detainee complained that his Quran was defiled by urine that wind had blown in through the vent.) Let's use our heads, people.

Having said all that, I found this part of the Washington Post's article to be particularly interesting:

Hood also said his investigation found 15 cases of detainees mishandling their own Qurans. 'These included using a Quran as a pillow, ripping pages out of the Quran, attempting to flush a Quran down the toilet and urinating on the Quran,' Hood's report said. It offered no possible explanation for those alleged abuses.

In the most recent of those 15 cases, a detainee on Feb. 18, 2005, allegedly ripped up his Quran and handed it to a guard, stating that he had given up on being a Muslim. Several of the guards witnessed this, Hood reported.

We just can't win for losing.