As an American, the Rev. Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., has every right to burn the Quran.

He has the same free speech rights we all have, freedoms many Muslims in the Middle East — the ones shouting “Death to America!” and burning U.S. flags — don’t have. They couldn’t do that to their own flags; they couldn’t say that about their own leaders.

But if Jones supports our troops in Afghanistan, he should not burn copies of the Quran.

“Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence,” Gen. David Petraeus said.

A good general knows that the goal of the soldiers in a war is peace. Petraeus knows that more anger won’t help.

And burning the Quran on 9/11 places the blame for the attacks on all of Islam, when the blame only belongs with a handful of extremist Muslims who practice terrorism. It would be like blaming all of Christianity for attacks made by the Irish Republican Army.

We lend our support to other newspapers calling for Jones to reconsider his plan for Saturday. Don’t do it.

In America, we can be the grown-ups. We can be the tolerant ones. We can take the high roads.

Petraeus is right. Let the military do the fighting.