From The Tank

Easter on the Front [J. Peter Pham]
Every time U.S. or allied forces in the war on terrorism so much as lift a finger during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan or any other days with particular or even quasi religious significance to the Islamic world, they are hectored by various groups for failing to show adequate sensitivity to the feelings of the umma. For example, less than two months after 9/11, Al-Haaj Ghazi Y. Khankan, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in New York, expressed dismay in one Washington Post forum that U.S. attacks on the Taliban while they were fasting might show that "we are not sensitive to their religious beliefs and are taking advantage of the situation."

I can hardly wait for our colleague W. Thomas Smith Jr. to report from Iraq on how the terrorists and insurgents are showing (or not showing) their sensitivity to the Christian religious beliefs of many of the men and women in the Coalition forces by taking (or not taking) advantage of the observance of what for Christians is the feast of feasts.

RE: Easter on the Front [W. Thomas Smith Jr.]
Peter, I'm just back from Iraq, but here are two of many examples of how the terrorists and insurgents are showing their "sensitivity" to our Easter and Passover holidays:
From the AP:

The renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged Iraqi forces to stop cooperating with
the United States and told his guerrilla fighters to concentrate their attacks
on American troops rather than Iraqis, according to a statement issued Sunday.
...
Separately, the U.S. military on Sunday announced the deaths of four
American soldiers, killed a day earlier in an explosion near their vehicle in
Diyala province northeast of Baghdad.

And of course, last week was one of the deadliest weeks for British soldiers (six killed) since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
04/08 09:55 AM