Army Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin doesn't like muslims:
[He] has made several speeches - some in uniform - at evangelical Christian churches in which he cast the war on terrorism in religious terms. Boykin said of a 1993 battle with a Muslim militia leader in Somalia: ``I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.'' (via Gaurdian Unlimited)
Boykin has also said:
because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian. ... And the enemy is a guy named Satan
Making this a holy war. I don't want anything to do with any war. I especially don't want anything to do with a holy war. There has never in history been such a war that upon genuine reflection wasn't exposed for the rampage of ego it truely was.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld doesn't mind:
We're a free people. And that's the wonderful thing about our country,'' Rumsfeld said. ``I think that for anyone to run around and think that that can be managed and controlled is probably wrong. Saddam Hussein could do it pretty well, because he'd go around killing people if they said things he didn't like.
He's right... we are a free people. Free to have any opinion we want.
That has absolutely nothing to do with the problem at hand.
It's not that Boykin expresses an opinion that is wrong... It's that the opinon shows a serious conflict of interest. He's a top military offical during a war in which Muslims are being killed. He doesn't like Muslims. That fundamentaly makes him the wrong man for the job.
Mr. Rumsfeld should do the right thing, and quickly seperate Boykin's church from our state.