Within days of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, President Bush showed admirable leadership in standing with Arab and Muslim leaders to declare that the war on terror was not a war against Islam. Unfortunately, not every American got the message. One of them happens to be the Pentagon’s senior military intelligence officer.
A 10-month Defense Department investigation has determined that Army Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin, the deputy undersecretary for intelligence, violated Defense Department regulations when he made inflammatory slurs about the Islamic faith at 23 religious-oriented events across the nation. In all but two cases, Boykin delivered his remarks while he was in military uniform.
He told a Florida audience that a Muslim Somali warlord was captured because “I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.” He pronounced Satan to be behind the terrorists because “he wants to destroy us as a Christian army” and that Islamic terrorists can be beaten “if we come at them in the name of Jesus.”
Arab and Muslim groups protested, and members of the Senate Committee on Armed Services demanded an inquiry and called for Boykin to step down from his position while it proceeded. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld kept Boykin at his post, praising his “outstanding record.”
Boykin is entitled to his religious views, but by delivering them as a representative of the U.S. military, he did a disservice to his nation and his commander in chief. He undermined Bush’s efforts to keep America’s focus on radical fundamentalists perpetrating terrorism, not on Islam and Christianity.
The president understands the need for clarity in this nation’s fight against terrorism. As recently as two months ago, at the U.S. Air Force Academy commencement, he repeated his declaration that the war against terror is not a clash of religions.
The Pentagon’s internal report affirms that Boykin violated military rules. The administration should send him to an early retirement, where his freedom to spout his views will not do damage to his nation’s mission.
