Posted on 11/14/2003 2:29:42 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Retired Army lieutenant colonel, popular author of “Private Sector” and news commentator Brian Haig tells NewsMax that the pillorying and investigation of beleaguered Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin is “a waste of time” as well as a tragic fate for one of the country’s greatest living warriors. Several Islamic and other groups criticized Boykin, the deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, last month when reports surfaced of comments he made during speeches at evangelical Christian churches. Among other things, Boykin said the enemy in the war on terrorism was Satan and that God had put President Bush in the White House. He referred to one Muslim Somali warlord as an idol-worshipper. Boykin’s remarks are under investigation at his own request by either the Army or DoD Inspector General’s Office; the record is unclear on this detail. Brian Haig, son of retired Gen. Alexander Haig, the former secretary of state and supreme commander of NATO, worked with Boykin on the Joint Staff and feels strongly that he needs to be humanized. Whenever he can, Haig tells NewsMax, he publicly decries the New York Times and Los Angeles Times for calling for Boykin’s head without any semblance of due process. “Someone who knows and has served with General Boykin and can vouch for his character and extraordinary record of service needs to be heard,” says Haig. The former strategic war planner for Korea and the man who helped design the vaunted Central Command refers to Boykin affectionately as “Snuffy” and is brim full of anecdotes about Boykin’s “extraordinary military history.” That extraordinary history began in 1971 when Boykin was commissioned. Since then the warrior has been present for and knee deep in his country’s messiest battles. Boykin, who now leads the vital search for Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, emerged from the Vietnam era as a central figure in Delta Force, recalls Haig. Delta Force is the elite branch of special operations, and Boykin served with it in various capacities, including commander, from 1978 to 1990. In 1980 Boykin was indeed in the thick of things: serving as the Delta Force operations officers on the Iranian hostage rescue attempt known as “Operation Eagle Claw.” By 1983 the fighting soldier was leading the assault on the prison in Grenada, receiving grievous wounds. “Many of us never thought he would recover,” confesses Haig. By 1989 he was storming through Noriega’s Panama searching for the criminal leader of that country. In 1992 Col. Boykin was commanding the initial eight-man Delta team sent to Colombia to hunt down drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar. Unfortunately, says Haig, Boykin was subsequently dangerously and unlawfully “outed” as one of the key Escobar fighters. In 1993 Boykin was again wounded by an incoming mortar round while commanding the infamous and bloody raid in Mogadishu, Somalia to capture clan leaders of warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Add to that Boykin’s service in Gulf War One and Two and the operations in Haiti, and it is fair to say that he has been serving at the point of the spear for decades. Haig shakes his head when he reflects that all that service resulted in a summary “Just fire him.” Haig laments that Boykin’s words were “taken out of context” and that at all times the general was not indicting a religion but rather a “wing of fanatics.” Haig admits that indeed there is a semantic issue with American officials who choose to stand clear of any references to a religious war. At the same time, however, it is abundantly clear to the initiated that Islamic fanaticism motivates our terrorist foes. In the meantime, Haig fervently hopes that the investigation and the other pressures put to bear on Boykin don’t “restrict his value” to the war on terrorism. Haig says Boykin is an intensely religious man who does frame things in terms of good and evil. However, the niceties of political correctness should not rob the county of one of its heroes and a vital asset.
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