Posted on 10/24/2003 3:38:16 PM PDT by jennyp
The Witless Battle Over General Boykin
By David Kelley
TOC Executive Director
dskelley@objectivistcenter.org
The crackle of small-arms fire you hear about General William Boykin is the sound of the latest skirmish in Americas culture wars. Boykin is the Pentagons head of intelligence in the war on terrorism. He is also an evangelical Christian who has told church groups that Muslim terrorists hate the United States because it is a Christian nation, that our real enemy is not Osama bin Laden but Satan, and that we will prevail only if we come against them in the name of Jesus.
It gets worse. According to the Los Angeles Times reporter who broke the story, Boykin would show audiences a picture he took while in Somalia, after the Blackhawk Down fiasco in Mogadishu. Pointing to an unnatural-looking dark streak in the sky, he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your enemy. It is the principalities of darkness. It is a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to me as the enemy.
The usual suspects quickly rounded themselves up and the cultural skirmish began. Liberals denounced the generals remarks as divisive and likely to offend Muslims worldwide, and called for his resignation. The most important global struggle, wrote Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman, is not between one religion and another but between fanaticism and tolerance. Conservatives rushed to Boykins defense. Not only does he have the right to express his religious conviction, they argued, but he is also right that America is a Christian nation, engaged in a war against evil.
Following the culture wars is usually interesting. It is often infuriating. But in this case its just embarrassing. The mark of the devil over Mogadishu? And this from a man in charge of military intelligence?
The problem here is not intolerance, divisiveness, or extremism. It is rank irrationality. The whole exchange is another tiresome example of a false dichotomy: dogmatism vs. relativism. Conservatives are right that liberals are afraid to assert the truth of their convictions. Liberals are right that conservatives are claiming truth for sectarian religious dogmasand rightly alarmed that they invoke those dogmas to justify war.
What both sides ignore is the alternative of reason and rational certainty. When Islamic terrorists attack us out of hatred for our secular way of life, our pursuit of happiness, our wealth and productive achievements, it is reason, not Jesus, that tells us they are viciously wrong. And reason does tell us that they are wrong, objectively wrong, and that we are objectively right in responding with force.
Earth to General Boykin and his conservative allies: You are defending a country founded in the Enlightenment, the era when reason was finally recognized as the arbiter of truth. You are relying on Americas vast wealth, created by people who used their minds, not their prayers, to work and produce. You are employing sophisticated military technology created by scientists whose highest commitment is to facts, observation, logic, and proof. You would not count on incantations or sacred texts to find bin Ladens cave. How can you rely on such means to justify your cause?
Earth to Ellen Goodman and her liberal co-ideologists: You are living in a country founded in the Enlightenment, by men who believed in the power of reason to find the truth and create a good society. The tolerance you enjoy is not an ultimate value; it is a means to an end, an enabling condition for peaceful cooperation and the rational exchange of ideas. If peace and reason are not objective values, worth defending when attacked, then you have no case for tolerance in the first place. And to judge by your vehement antipathy to dogmatism, youre really not willing to tolerate that, are you?
The next time one of these skirmishes beginswhether its the Ten Commandments in a courtroom, the Pledge of Allegiance, or a leaders invocation of faithcould we try to avoid another such witless battle?
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<sigh> One of these days I'm going to have to read Sun Tzu. :-)
Seriously, I just finished Ann Coulter's Treason (great book, better IMO than Slander) and I'm ready for something else.
Interesting take on Boykin's speech, thanks.
Thank you, marron, you made my day! (Now if I could only make those darn creationists understand that we evo-freepers aren't deep-cover Communist agents out to pervert the minds of impressionable high-school students with our godless evilution... Argh!)You may count yourself as an atheist, but your atheism isn't the key part of your nature. Nazis and Marxists are atheists, but you have nothing in common with them. What is key is that you have looked at the same world they looked at, and rather than arrive at an analysis that is hateful to humans, that uses reason to bind men, you believed that reason required that men should love, be fruitful, and free.
I agree with you, reason requires it. And, according to me, God also agrees with you. We are on this earth to love, to be fruitful, and free. Reason requires it, and God intends it. You are in agreement with God, and his will, as we understand it, even if you don't believe in him.
The mission is accomplished. Let the Iraqi's rebuild their nation, let the Afghans rebuild their nation, and let every terrorist know that we will hunt them down and kill them if they attack us again. Time to bring our soldiers home, time for the Muslim world to show what it is made of (if they dare), by assisting the Afghans and Iraqis to rebuild what was destroyed in order to show the danger of Islamic fanatacism.
One of these days I'm going to have to read Sun Tzu. :-) Seriously, I just finished Ann Coulter's Treason (great book, better IMO than Slander) and I'm ready for something else. Interesting take on Boykin's speech, thanks. ~~ JennyP
Well, maybe you should read "Sun Tzu."
'Cause here we are, Six Months after the fact,and your beloved "Objectivist Center" is still making Ayn-Randian excuses for Torture and Forced Sodomy:
Frankly, I am sickened. RANDIANS apologizing for TORTURE. You know what? Screw the Politicians, Screw the Government, and SCREW the Randian Objectivists Anti-Statist World Crusade.
You Randians can apologize for TORTURE and SODOMY all you want, we Christians Libertarians don't give a damn about your World Anti-Statist Crusade. We just want Reservist Families brought home to their Children.
The CHRISTIAN LIBERTARIANS were Right all along, and you know it. We never signed on for any "Randian Global Crusade" -- Screw the Government... we just want to Breed, Catechize, and Homeschool our Children in peace.
So bring the Reservists home to their Families, to Breed, Catechize, and Homeschool our Children in peace -- and Evolutionism, Abortionism, and Secular Humanism will die on the vine as HomeSchoolers Out-Breed and Out-Educate the deficient Publik Skoolers.
It's simple Demographics and Natural Selection, JennyP. We Calvinist Fremen have a saying: "God created the Earth, to train the Faithful."
One cannot go against the Word of God.
Best, OP
We agree in method but not in extent. Both of you appear to think that Afghan & Iraq are the endpoints.
I see them as the bookends, and I'm disappointed that the war on terrorism has been sidetracked by this damned determination to replicate the Marshall Plan in Iraq. I'm more inclined to speak softly and carry a big stick.
After Baghdad we should have, SINCE our campaign won for us Afghan and Iraq, and SINCE we now had Syria and Iran neatly, geographical, strategically, and operationally bookended...WE SHOULD HAVE turned and kicked the living s_it out of Syria, and then turned and deposed that regime in Tehran.
Then we return to our bases in Kuwait and send a simple message: "Give me half an excuse and I'll come do it again." And successively, we would destroy any government that came into power with which we didn't have a clear understanding.
I couldn't agree with you more on this! It seems that our government has taken what could have been a really successful gutting of terrorism, and turned it into yet another opportunity to drain our own wealth and well-being, and to reduce our ability to stand apart from a One-World government.
Great Ohio Minds think alike. :>)
It's mind-boggling that the buckeye state polls have it in the kerry column.
(GW still being our best bet.)
I don't really agree with your Plan (I'm too Anti-War, I guess -- I supported the Afghan War, but I was opposed to Iraq II until I found out about Salman Pak), but at least it enjoys the virtues of a clearly defined Mission Strategy and Exit Strategy. I will grant that.
Which, unfortunately, are two virtues not shared by "this damned determination to replicate the Marshall Plan in Iraq", as you aptly put it.
And, realistically, we probably could have executed your "Give me half an excuse and I'll come do it again" War-Plan for about the same (multi-hundred-billion-dollar) cost as we're going to spend rebuilding Iraq.
Let Iraq rebuild itself, they should be happy enough to be rid of Saddam. Allegedly, they have a few Oil reserves -- so, sell some.
The rebuilding of Iraq was a military and political weakness.
Can you imagine if FDR had told Eisenhower to pause and rebuild France before going on to Germany?
Pause and rebuild Morocco or Algeria before going on to Egypt.
Why not just cancel Bogart smacking Bacall at Casa Blanca. They could have made nice with each other, instead.
To me, it's a simple matter of Biblical Justice. Under Exodus 22:2, it seems to me that the Government's job is to Punish the Thief who's breaking in (or in this case, providing training to 5-man terrorist teams at Salman Pak on the art of hijacking airliners with boxcutters)... not use US tax dollars to put the Thief's kids through college because we're sorry about them now being Orphans.
There can (and should) be private charity for that, but I don't see it as the Government's job. Especially when I, as a private citizen, am perfectly willing to help rebuild Iraq on a private basis -- by purchasing their oil.
True, very true. It's the large cities that go for the Liberals, because they figure they'll get handouts in return. Out in the rural areas, Conservatives rule the day.
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