Freedom of Speech during wartime is a lot different than peacetime. Currently, the USA is engaged in a war in Afghanistan whose population is majority Muslim. Any speech that screams "FIRE! in a crowded theatre" should not and according to US Supreme Court precedent is not legal during wartime.
Here is what Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote in Schenck v. United States (1919):
The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that the United States Congress has a right to prevent. It is a question of proximity and degree. When a nation is at War, many things that might be said in time of Peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.
The proposed Koran burning by Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach in Gainesville, Florida is clearly failing the clear and present danger precedent above. General Petraeus and President Obama among others were right to condemn his proposed Koran burning because it would be used as a major recruiting tool for the Taliban in Afghanistan among angering Muslims worldwide to put US troops and citizens in Muslim countries in clear danger of death.
Free Speech such as this during a wartime period should not be tolerated. Period.
Don't confuse cowardice with prudence. The prudent course of action would be to make the USA more accomodating of those who practice Islam.
If this takes allowing mosques to be built not only 2 blocks from Ground Zero but in redneck towns in Iowa and Pennsyltucky, then so be it.
We need to show our enemies our way is better than theirs, we will not punish them unduly after they lay down their arms, and we will embrace them if they so choose to live in our country or try to make their country like ours.
America was not built on exclusion.
