Many supporters of the war, such as President Bush and presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, see significant progress having been made since the so-called “surge” took effect.

The cover story of Sunday’s New York Times Magazine featured McCain, and a large amount of insight into his views on the Iraq war. The piece argued that McCain viewed the Vietnam War as a conflict that was badly run until 1968, when Gen. Creighton Abrams took over with a new strategy to win the hearts and minds of the populace.

According the Times, McCain’s view was that if the American people did not demand an end to that war, Abrams would have led the United States to victory.

Today, McCain is advocating in Iraq the same type of tactics that Abrams sought to bring to Vietnam.

He feels that if the U.S. can win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, it will eventually overcome the insurgency.

On paper, it’s a sound theory.

The major problem seems to be that the American Army seems to be sabotaging its own strategy.

The news recently broke that an American soldier stationed in Iraq used a Quran for target practice as well as a canvas for graffiti.

The sheer idiocy of this is staggering.

We’re living in a world where if a cartoonist simply draws a picture of the Prophet Muhammad, it is greeted with scorn and protests. What did the soldier and those who knew about it think would happen when the incident became public?

Perhaps a better question to ask is what would Americans think if we discovered that the insurgents had been using Bibles as target practice?

Most disturbing is the way in which the incident was discovered. The bullet hole-ridden book was found by Iraqi police on May 11 after American forces withdrew from the area. This means that not only was the book desecrated, but the evidence left out in the open.

I don’t mean to excuse or belittle the action, but even a 5-year-old should know better than to leave the evidence of wrongdoing out in the open.

The only answer is that the soldier who did it — as well as any who knew about it — saw no problem in leaving it to be found.

How are we supposed to win the hearts and minds of the people when our soldiers seem to lack even a basic understanding of their culture?

The Army has taken several steps to apologize for the incident, including one American officer kissing and presenting a Quran copy to local tribal leaders.

What the generals should be concentrating on is trying to figure out why it happened instead of trying to make up for it.

For the moment, the reality is that our forces are in there and dealing with the reality on the ground. Iraq is a mess, and while stuff like this is going, it’s just going to get messier.

James Harrison is a State News columnist. Reach him at harri310@msu.edu .