Conclusion? No, it's the end.

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Almost exactly one year ago, I came across the ISAF website headline,  "The Religious Importance of the Qu'ran," I wrote:

As a well-known sucker for the religious importance of the "Qur'an" -- I prefer "Ko-ran," with Texas inflection -- I just had to click and see.

The caption tells us so-and-so holds his prayers beads during a March 2010 ribbon-cutting ceremony on an electrification project in the Farah Distriction, quoting Mr. So-and-So as saying: "If we have electricity ... we can turn on our lights, and read the Koran.”

What comment is appropriate here? "The jaw drops"? "The universe spins"? We must go beyond shock to assess the advanced state of psycho-masochism the US military has now attained under the suicidal ideology of COIN, a belief system of unparralleled arrogance that actually believes that a scheme of sticks and carrots, at a staggering cost of blood (limbs, skull shards) and unrecoverable treasure, is adequate to remake Muslim Man in Petraeus's Image.

But the joke is on the COINsters. For what is happening is that it is they who are remaking themselves. In seeking to win Islamic hearts and minds, a lynchpin of the non-military, social-work basis of the COIN strategy, they have themselves become de facto followers of Islamic law, and they are spreading it to our troops.

"Download the Religious Importance of the Qu'ran, the ISAF website commanded. What comes up is a COIN guidance, which I began writing about here as a tool by which the US military is Islamizing our forces by ordering them to under Islamic law for dhimmi vis a vis the Koran.

Example:

"1. Do NOT handle the Qur'an or other Islamic religious materials," the guidance guides, having explained it is "culturally insensitive" for non-Muslims to "touch" a copy. Even when conducting searches, Korans get special handling. "Ask them [enemy forces!] if they have a Qu'ran or religious item present. If so, ask them to remove it or put it in a suitable place before conducting the search."

Excuse me, Mullah Omar. Before I relieve you of your bloody scimitar, might you happen to have a Qu'ran present...?

The guidance notes:"Additionally, verbal disrespect for Islam and/or the Qu'ran is considered as inappropriate as physical desecration of the Qu'ran. Insulting the Qu'ran is an act of blasphemy."

Nice declarative statement. Consciously or not, COIN has dropped the "Muslims believe" convention to emphatic effect. It picks it up again to note: "Muslims believe they have an inherent duty to stand up against injustices committed against Islam and the Qu'ran. Therefore, they will take any perceived disrespect to Islam and/or the Qu'ran extremely seriously."

This is a lesson in Islamic logic. It is a lesson well learned by our leaders, leading them to apologize when the inanimate object endowed by Islam and COIN with sacredness above all  is damaged, and to say nothing when six Americans are murdered in return.

Instead, Afghanistan commander Gen. John R. Allen broke from bended knee long enough to issue a new directive on Koran handling on February 21, 2012. He promised "all coalition forces in Afghanistan will complete training in the proper handling of religious materials no later than March 3."

ISAF described the training as including "the identification of religious materials, their significance, correct handling and storage."

It's so much more. In fact, the length, breadth and complexity of the new directive reveal that the US military has reached a new, even more advanced level of dhimitude, now embracing the ritualistic minutiae Islam imposes upon its dhimmi subjects in order to elicit robotic demonstrations of respect.

The complete slide show is at Atlas Shrugs. While the new directive covers much of the same ground as the old, it is more emphatic, with red-colored notes of hysteria. For example:

It also extends the Islamic legal protection not just to copies of the Qu'ran but to copies of the verses containing Allah's name, which could extend to a scrap of paper.

Storing the book for whatever purpose now becomes a Islamic ritual for American servicemembers:

Of course, I gave away the end -- the conclusion -- by featuring the final slide at the top of the post.

"We will hold sacred the beliefs held sacred by others."

Makes a nice motto for the Post United States of America, doesn't it?