Posted on 11/06/2003 7:06:44 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Many readers complain that I never find one good thing to say about President George W. Bush. Well, this is your lucky day. I agree with President Bush in his double denunciation of remarks made by Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin. “He doesn’t reflect my point of view or the point of view of this administration,” the president told reporters in the Rose Garden, having earlier dumped on Boykin during his visit to Malaysia. Boykin’s supporters immediately accused the president of turning his back on an American hero and a true Christian warrior. But they are wrong. A 30-year veteran, Boykin does have an impressive resume. He rose from a Delta Force commando to command of the Army’s Special Forces. Recently he was named undersecretary of defense for intelligence, charged with leading the hunt for Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. The problem is, he comes to his job as an intolerant, religious zealot. Boykin became the darling of the religious right by giving dozens of speeches in churches across the country in which he described the war on terror as a holy war, pitting the forces of good, or Christianity, against the forces of evil, or Islam. As quoted by the Los Angeles Times and NBC News, Boykin sounds like Bernard of Clairvaux, dispatching medieval crusaders to the Holy Land to kill for Jesus. “We in the army of God, in the house of God, kingdom of God have been raised for such a time as this,” he told an Oregon congregation last year. The reason terrorists hate us is “because we’re a Christian nation … and the enemy is a guy named Satan.” And, says the general, foes like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein “will only be defeated if we go after them in the name of Jesus.” But Boykin isn’t content with bragging that ours is a Christian army. Describing his encounter with a Somali warlord, Boykin said: “My God is bigger than his God. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.” No wonder the president’s miffed. How can he convince the world’s Muslims to join us in waging a war on terror when one of his top generals says Muslims worship a false God? Boykin’s comments immediately raise two questions: Does he have a right to say it? Yes. And is he right to say it? No. As an American, Boykin has a right to say whatever he wants. He can say that every Muslim is a child of Satan and going straight to hell, if that’s what he believes. And, apparently, he does. But is he right to say so? Not when his commander in chief has stressed that our beef is not with Islam, but with those extremists who twist a peaceful religion into a violent one and use Islam as an excuse for the slaughter of innocents. That’s where Boykin’s Christian supporters miss the point. This is not a question of freedom of speech or religion. This is a question of military discipline. Boykin took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not the Bible. When the commander in chief declares that the war on terror is not a war on Islam, no member of the military has the right to appear in public, in uniform, and say just the opposite. Gen. Boykin is now under investigation for insubordination by the Pentagon’s inspector general. Despite a request from Republican Sen. John Warner that the general be sidelined pending results of the investigation, Secretary Rumsfeld has allowed Boykin to stay on the job. You don’t need a six-month investigation to know that boykin publicly and repeatedly undercut his commander in chief. Rumsfeld should fire Gen. Boykin immediately. The president can never win the war on terror as long as one of his top generals is working against him.
Where's the problem? I can offer my support to a religious zealot who is intolerant of Muslims who slam airbuses full of passengers into skyscrapers, and who blow up innocent civilians.
"Boykin took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not the Bible. When the commander in chief declares that the war on terror is not a war on Islam, no member of the military has the right to appear in public, in uniform, and say just the opposite. "
The author has no idea what the oath requires. Just because the CIC declares the sky is red does not make it so. It takes and extarordinary amount of courage to dispute that which the CIC continues to present as reality when everyone knows the truth but are too afraid to tell the Emperor that he is naked.
Sooo? Did he take oath not to uphold the bible? Doesn't he uphold the Constitution?
marching as to war
With the Cross of Jesus
Going on before........
General Boykin can and does both. Since when did blind obedience and offical perpetuation of a lie being told to the American public become a prerequisite for holding the office and responsibilities of a General Staff Officer? I would think that a man of General Boykin's philosophical beliefs can and does serve the Constitution and the Republic well.
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