Visit Florida and the state Chamber of Commerce have more to worry about than oil.

After the Rev. Terry Jones and his band of lunatics torch a pile of Qurans in the shadow of our flagship university, who in the world is going to feel safe funning in the Florida sun?

And, does anybody actually believe Jones will call off his Quran-burning because he’s afraid to pay a fine for violating Gainesville’s burn ban?

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan – a man who understands the Taliban and al-Qaida better than most international affairs professors – predicts American troops will die if Jones’ Dove World Outreach Center goes through with its Sept. 11 International Burn a Koran Day.

He predicts Jones will give jihadists new resolve to recruit, to engage previously peaceful Moslems, even to wreak havoc on our shores.

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Gen. Petraeus said in an interview. "It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

Why Florida, you ask? Why us? Why are these fanatics here, doing this, putting us in danger now?

Maybe because half of the leadership in this state is running for office and the other half doesn’t want to fall out of step.

Politicians who fervently signed petitions to keep a mosque far away from the vicinity of Ground Zero are weighing the consequences of doubling back to condemn the Quran burning.

You either take a firm stand against these Moslems or you don’t. Why can I just hear that rolling around in Attorney General Bill McCollum’s head?

Because, at least at the moment, McCollum – the man who issued press releases virtually every hour when he was a candidate for governor – is AWOL on this international issue involving the state in which he is the chief law enforcement officer.

More important, what does Gov. Charlie Crist have to say? Where’s the leadership? Where is this man whose “fellow Floridians” – as he said on television 10 days ago – so concern every fiber of his being, whose welfare gives him a reason to get up in the morning?

Well, the governor finally did come out with a statement after 1 p.m. Tuesday.  It was more than a day after hundreds of Afghans attended a demonstration in Kabul to protest Jones’ plans to burn copies of Islam's holy book.

Reports were brutal. Being as how it was Labor Day and Charlie the U.S. Senate candidate had to press flesh at a barbecue, Charlie the governor might have missed them. To recap:

Afghan protesters chanted "death to America."

Speakers called on the U.S. to withdraw American troops.

Some protesters threw rocks at a passing military convoy.

Others held an outlined map of Florida in a circle with a line through it.

Did that sound like Florida is a target to Captain Wuss, our governor? No. Crist combined a statement on stem-cell research in Tampa with one about the imminent Gainesville Quran burnings.

“I certainly wouldn’t advise that,” Crist said. Destroying a religion’s holy books, Charlie … you wouldn’t?

“I don’t think that’s a productive use of time.”

Productive use of …?

“As we know, the First Amendment gives people the right to express themselves, but I think I agree with Gen. Petraeus,” the governor said. “He indicated he did not think it would be the right thing to do.”

Oh, I think he indicated a whole lot more than that, sir.

And while, yes, as Crist points out, we’re a country based on religious freedom and we need to respect it, we’re also a country that can make fine distinctions. And surely there is a distinction here – between your freedom and my hate crime.

I don’t say for one minute a hate-crime offense would hold up in a court of law against Jones and his band of looney book burners.