But that new assignment may be complicated by controversial views Boykin — an evangelical Christian — has expressed in dozens of speeches at churches and prayer breakfasts around the country.
“Well, is he [bin Laden] the enemy? Next slide. Or is this man [Saddam] the enemy? The enemy is none of these people I have showed you here. The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He’s called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan.”
Why are terrorists out to destroy the United States? Boykin said: “They’re after us because we’re a Christian nation.”
NBC News military analyst Bill Arkin, who’s been investigating Boykin for the Los Angeles Times, says the general casts the war on terror as a religious war: “I think that it is not only at odds with what the president believes, but it is a dangerous, extreme and pernicious view that really has no place.”
During a January church speech in Daytona, Fla., Boykin recalled a Muslim fighter in Somalia who bragged on television the Americans would never get him because his God, Allah, would protect him: “Well, you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.”
The Somali was captured, and Boykin said he told the man: “Mr. Atto, you underestimated our God.”
They might be a factor if he worked for the State Department as perhaps a diplomat to an Islamic country. However, his job is to coordinate intelligence with special forces to identify and eliminate terrorist targets. His religious views are not a factor in accomplishing this mission. His political views are not a factor. His sexual orientation is not a factor.
It is incredible the the LA Times paid someone to investigate an issue as petty as this. Hugh Hewitt has pointed out that the story was generated by the LA Times (General Casts War in Religious Terms) but that they gave the story to MSNBC so they could broadcast it first. Why would a newspaper, whose primary objective is the scoop the opposition, give their own story away to a rival and allow them to print it first? The only reason that comes to mind is that they (the LA Time) were trying to manufacture news.
The LA Times article does present some 'expert' opinion to show how awful this really is:
This is indicative of the self-righteous, unquestioning nature of the religious right. I don’t see a wit’s worth of difference between the Christian fundamentalists and their Muslim brothers. In both camps, killing has been advocated for their believes; abortion related killings count as much as terrorists. There is absolutely no way that reasoned, proportionate assesments can be made by an individual with such a bias. Never mind the PR baggage an idiot like this would carry.
http://king-of-fools.com/blog/trackback/171/NXZzpPq2/