Burning Koran's in Florida

A Florida church plans to burn Koran's on 9/11. Stupid idea.

The issue, of course, is parallel with the building of the mosque on ground zero. Sure...a church in Florida has A RIGHT to burn Koran's. Just like they have a right to burn the flag or burn their own books or burn their own bbq chicken. But just because they have a right to it, doesn't make it a good idea. Neither burning Koran's or building a mosque on ground zero are good ideas. They are both designed to be provocative and escalate tensions between the already touchy relationship between the West and the Islamic World.

UPDATE: Petraeus warns the book burning could harm troops. I'm not such a fan of this argument. Fighting a war "harms" our troops. The question is whether it is worth it. In any case, this appeal bespeaks an overemphasis on troop protection - both on a war front and on a domestic front...sort of the equivalent of resting players before a the playoffs because of injury fears.

UPDATE 2: Andrew Sullivan's minions agree with me on the Petraeus book burning statement and put it better than me:

I just don't think that in a democracy people in uniform are the proper arbiters of what constitutes appropriate free expression, even when it's an event with fascist overtones as obvious as a public book burning.

But I don't get this, either:

That is is being enabled by a party that claims to take national security seriously is an indication of just how farcical and dangerous the GOP now is.

I don't see the GOP organizing the Koran burning. It is a weirdo church. How he draws this link is bizarre.