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    23
    Feb
    2012
    8:51pm, EST

    Gingrich criticizes Obama's apology to Afghans over Quran burning

    By NBC’s Alex Moe

    SPOKANE, Wash. – Newt Gingrich criticized the Obama administration for apologizing to Afghan leaders after Qurans were burned at a military base.

    “The president apologized for the burning, but I haven't seen the president demand that the government of Afghanistan apologize for the killing of two young Americans,” Gingrich told roughly 500 people at the Bing Crosby Theater here Thursday.

    The Afghans, Gingrich believes, "do not deserve the apology of the United States” after an Afghan soldier shot two American troops at a protest that followed the desecration of the holy books.


    “If Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, doesn't feel like apologizing, 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,” the former House speaker said.

    Karzai’s office said Thursday that it wants NATO to put on trial those who burned the holy books.

    The demonstrations began three days ago after people witnessed copies of the Muslim holy book being burned in a garbage pile at Bagram Air Field. Military officials said the burning was a mistake. The apology from the Obama administration came after the two Americans were killed.

    Gingrich has been unrelenting in criticizing Barack Obama’s foreign policies. At his campaign event in Spokane, Gingrich called him “the greatest national security disaster that we've had in my lifetime."

    653 comments

    What is it about Republicans and their aversion to apologies? I don't get that. If I burned a pile of leaves (which I can't anymore, but if I could) and the neighbor's lawn chair was in the pile, I'd say sorry. Does that make me weaker? And this obsession with not looking weak in a way makes us look …

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