GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Thursday a U.S. apology to Afghan authorities for burned Qurans on a military base was “astonishing” and undeserved. President Barack Obama formally apologized Thursday after copies of the Muslim holy book were found in the week burned in a garbage pit on a U.S. air field earlier. Later Thursday, news organizations reported that an Afghan soldier had killed two U.S. troops and wounded others in retaliation for the burning. Campaigning in Washington state, Gingrich said Afghan President Hamid Karzai owes the U.S. an apology for the shootings/Associated Press. More here. (AP photo of Hamid Karzai and Barack Obama in New York last Sept. 20)

Question: Gingrich goes on to say: “There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama’s attention in a negative way.” Do you agree with Gingrich?

We seem to have slipped into one of those vortices in which people are trying to surpass one another in oafish behavior. I would have found it difficult to imagine anything that could do more to aggravate the already strained relations between Islam and Christianity than building a mosque at New York’s Ground Zero. But then, I don’t have Terry Jones’ imagination. Jones is the senior pastor at the ironically misnamed Dove World Outreach Center, a puny fundamentalist church in Florida. This otherwise inconsequential man has drawn considerable attention to himself by declaring today, Sept. 11, 2010, “International Burn a Quran Day” — although it would be more accurate to say that the mainstream news media have focused considerable attention on him by weaving him into their “America is Islamophobic” narrative. He intends to recognize the anniversary of 9/11 by burning a stack of Qurans/Michael Costello, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Question: Who’s more to blame for the fervor surrounding Terry Jones’ threat to burn the Quran — the mainstream media or the online media?

Michael Ramirez/Investor’s Business Daily

Nick Anderson/Houston Chronicle

Afghans move banners saying “Quran is our law, Islam is our religion” during a demonstration against the United States, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday. Hundreds of Afghans railed against the U.S. and called for President Barack Obama’s death at a rally in the capital Monday to denounce the American church’s plans to burn the Islamic holy book on 9/11. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Question: Which group of fundamentalist radicals scare you most — America’s (Rev. Terry Jones) or the ones above?

Nick Anderson/Houston Chronicle

Rev. Terry Jones poses for a photo at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., recently. Jones vowed to go ahead with plans to burn copies of the  Quran  to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite warnings from the White House and the top U.S. general in Afghanistan that doing so would endanger American troops overseas. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Question: Are the fears of President Obama and a top general in Afghanistan real — that a protest that involves burning the Quran will endanger American fighting men & women?