DD,

How so? Burning a Koran is not analogous to shouting fire in the crowded theater (when there is no fire). Falsely raising alarm could hurt someone. Burning a GD Koran is burning paper! Burning a burn that one owns and that is not the property of another is not a crime. No one is physically harmed by the action. Being offended by the action is purely and totally an emotional reaction, and therefore doesn't pass the false shout of "fire" test. Emotional zealots who get wound up over book-burning by loony Jones and go out and murder innocents commit crimes and therefore are criminals.

Patraeus is wrong. He's sacrificing a fundamental principle of the U.S. Constitution for the convenience of avoiding the wrath of emotional reactionaries. If you're willing to cave in on this, what else of the Constitution are you willing to cave in on? Again, if the US doesn't stand for its Constitutional principles, exactly WTF do we stand for?

(BTW, wasn't this the famous Patrick Henry quote from the Constitutional Convention - "I disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it?")

Sg