NEWT SAYS AFGHANS OWE U.S. APOLOGY FOR THE DEATHS OF FOUR AMERICAN SOLDIERS KILLED DURING ‘KORAN BURNING’ PROTESTS

Four American soldiers, including a colonel and a major, have been killed during the ‘Koran burning’ riots, as of this writing. I agree with Newt that we do not owe the Afghans any apologies for the inadvertent burning of their holy books.

‘THEY DON’T DESERVE AN APOLOGY’: GINGRICH SLAMS OBAMA FOR SAYING SORRY TO AFGHANS OVER KORAN BURNING AS DEATH TOLL RISES TO 23
Claims Afghanistan should apologize to U.S. after American soldiers are killed

By Mark Duell

Mail Online
February 25, 2012

Twelve people died today during the bloodiest day yet of protests in Afghanistan over the burning of Koran copies found in a rubbish pit at a NATO military base.

Back in the U.S., GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich lashed out at President Barack Obama for saying sorry after copies of the Muslim holy book were found burned earlier this week.

Riot police and soldiers are braced for more violence after the Bagram compound burning deepened mistrust of NATO as it struggles to stabilise the nation before foreign combat troops leave in 2014.

Hundreds of Afghans marched toward the palace of their country’s President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Friday, while on the other side of the capital protesters hoisted the white flag of the Taliban.

Chanting ‘Death to America!’ and ‘Long live Islam!’, protesters also threw rocks at police in Kabul, while Afghan army helicopters circled above and mosques in the capital drew large crowds.

Armed protesters took refuge in shops in the eastern part of the city, where one was killed, police said. In another Kabul rally, police were unsure who fired the shots that killed a second protester.

Seven more protesters were killed in Herat, two in Khost and one in the relatively peaceful Baghlan province, health and local officials said. In Herat, around 500 men charged at the U.S. consulate.

President Obama's apology was announced on Thursday and a few hours later it was reported that an Afghan soldier killed two U.S. troops and wounded others in retaliation for the Koran burning.

Campaigning in Washington state, Mr Gingrich said President Karzai now owes the U.S. an apology.

‘There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama's attention in a negative way and he is consistently apologising to people who do not deserve the apology,’ he said.

‘Candidly, if Hamid Karzai, doesn't feel like apologising then we should say goodbye and good luck, we don't need to be here risking our lives and wasting our money on somebody who doesn't care.’

President Obama apologised to President Karzai for the unintentional burning of the Korans at NATO's main Bagram air base after Afghan labourers found charred copies while collecting rubbish.

White House spokesman Jay Carney sought to counter criticism, telling reporters on board Air Force One: ‘It is wholly appropriate, given the sensitivities to this issue, the understandable sensitivities.’

‘His primary concern as commander in chief is the safety of the American men and women in Afghanistan, of our military and civilian personnel there. And it was absolutely the right thing to do.’