{"id":2555,"date":"2004-09-17T11:30:58","date_gmt":"2004-09-17T16:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2555.html"},"modified":"2004-09-17T11:30:58","modified_gmt":"2004-09-17T16:30:58","slug":"boykins-unpersuasive-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/boykins-unpersuasive-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"Boykin’s unpersuasive defense"},"content":{"rendered":"

60 Minutes had a different<\/i> newsworthy segment this week<\/a> that had nothing to do with forged memos about a soldier who didn’t meet his responsibilities, but dealt with genuine videos of an actual military officer — Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin.<\/p>\n

CBS spoke with Boykin, giving him his first nationally televised opportunity to respond to the fairly outrageous things he’s been taped saying to church groups nationwide. Among Boykin’s more colorful remarks<\/a>:<\/p>\n

* A year ago, Boykin conducted a slide show with a church group. He said, “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.”<\/p>\n

* When asked why terrorists have targeted the United States, Boykin said, “Why do they hate us so much? Ladies and gentlemen, the answer to that is because we’re a Christian nation.”<\/p>\n

* America’s “spiritual enemy,” Boykin once said, “will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus.”<\/p>\n

* Boykin recalled in a January speech a Muslim soldier in Somalia who believed Allah would protect him in battle against the U.S. “Well, you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his,” Boykin said. “I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.” When the Muslim soldier was eventually captured, Boykin claims to have told the man that he “underestimated our God.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of these remarks were offered in uniform, despite the Military Code of Conduct<\/a> forbidding such activities.<\/p>\n

On 60 Minutes, Boykin rejected the notion that he’s a religious zealot and insisted, “I’m not anti-Islam, I’m not anti-Allah.” It was less than persuasive.
\n
\nSpecifically, 60 Minutes focused in on Boykin’s “my God was bigger than his” comment, suggesting that it was pretty conclusive proof that the man Bush asked to coordinate our military intelligence in the war on terrorism was anti-Muslim. Boykin rejected the assertion.<\/p>\n

“Let’s go back to the day that we captured Osman Atto [the Somali warlord]. He was a corrupt, evil warlord who was stealing from and robbing his own people. He’s a man who worshipped graft, corruption, power and money,” says Boykin. “My reference to his God being an idol was not to Allah. My reference was to his worship of corruption, of power, of money. He was a thug. He was not a good Muslim.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m not sure what makes Boykin believe he’s qualified to discern who is and who isn’t a “good Muslim,” but that’s not really the point. Boykin would have us believe that when he called Atto’s God an “idol,” he wasn’t referring to Allah, he was referring to Atto’s idolatry.<\/p>\n

Obviously, I can’t read the man’s mind, but the speech Boykin delivered in January suggests this defense isn’t true.<\/p>\n

In the original context, Boykin told his church audience the story of the military hunt for Osman Atto. After missing him in a raid, Boykin said Atto appeared on CNN and said, “They’ll never get me because Allah will protect me.” Boykin told his church audience, “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.”<\/p>\n

The juxtaposition was obvious. Atto said Allah would protect him; Boykin said the Christian God was bigger than Atto’s God. This wasn’t about greed; it was about Islam.<\/p>\n

Boykin then explained to his audience that the military eventually captured Atto, at which point Boykin confronted Atto directly and said, “Mr. Atto, you underestimated our God.”<\/p>\n

Now Boykin wants us to believe that he was referring to Atto’s worship of “money and power.” The context gives every reason to believe otherwise.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, despite having been caught violaing military regulations<\/a> with his behavior, 60 Minutes reported that Boykin “insists he’s not about to quit.” It’s a shame; he’s clearly the wrong man for the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

60 Minutes had a different newsworthy segment this week that had nothing to do with forged memos about a soldier who didn’t meet his responsibilities, but dealt with genuine videos of an actual military officer — Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin. CBS spoke with Boykin, giving him his first nationally televised opportunity to respond to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}