Double standards on violence

I don’t understand. Americans burned the Quran and there are riots. I saw on television Iraqis and Afghans burning our flag, also images of our president, as well as the cross, and I guess that is OK.

We are condemned because of waterboarding prisoners, but it’s acceptable to put an American in front of a camera and cut off his head. Some think holding prisoners in Guantanamo is wrong, but I remember Iran holding dozens of civilians hostage years ago. I hope the three hikers recently released haven’t been forgotten.

I agree the recent shootings of villagers by one of our soldiers is terrible. I see TV coverage of the uprising by the Afghans, then I think of all the bombings of other innocents by their own people again and again. I don’t understand.

Recent events in the Middle East, Iraq, Egypt, Libya and Syria, to name a few, show how little life means. Many neighborhoods, villages and cities have been bombed, killing women and children, to prove this out. Still, we send our troops to an ungrateful population to bring peace to them.

President Hamid Karzai wants Americans out of Afghanistan. Does that mean our aid and our dollars also?

Jack M. Bean

Spokane Valley