So, you want to go further down the rabbit hole? With the recent GQ revelations about Rummy's weird militant Christian memos I want to put some of Bushco's behavior in context.
You might remember General William G. Boykin (ret.), implementer of US torture policies in Iraq under Donald Rumsfeld. For those who don't I'd like to show the bigger picture in the torture debate.
Boykin:
Here's the way I want to enter the gates of Heaven. I want to come skidding in there on all fours. I want to be slipping and sliding and I want to hit the gates of heaven with a bang. And when I stand up and I stand before Christ, I want there to be blood on my knees and my elbows. I want to be covered with mud. And I want to be standing there with a ragged breast plate of righteousness. And a spear in my hand. And I want to say, "Look at me, Jesus. I've been in the battle. I've been fighting for you." Ladies and gentlemen, put your armor on and get into battle. God bless you.
An interpretation of the debate, whether implicitly or explicitly, is that the administration had a narrow, misguided view on Muslims and might not be too worried about the possibility of torturing "innocent" detainees because they were guilty worshiping the wrong God.
WWMD - What W. Might Do:
September 19, 2001
As Europeans wait to see how the United States is planning to retaliate for last week's terrorist attacks in Washington and New York, there is growing anxiety here about the tone of American war rhetoric. President Bush's reference to a "crusade" against terrorism, which passed almost unnoticed by Americans, rang alarm bells in Europe.
Ari Fleisher explained afterward:
I think to the degree [crusade] has many connotations that would upset many of our partners or anybody else in the world, the president would regret if anything like that was conveyed. But the purpose of his conveying it is in the traditional English sense of the word, it's a broad cause.
Let's not forget the word dancing these guys play. The point of what Bush said or otherwise implied was not really denied or refuted.
General William G. Boykin
Credit to: National Names Database (NNDB)
So who better than Boykin to take policies developed at Guantanamo's Camp X-Ray and implemented them at Abu Ghraib.
Impressive resume to say the least. Tied to the Iranian hostage rescue attempt. The invasion of Grenada. Advised Janet Reno on what kind of gas to use at Waco. Helped go after Pablo Escobar. Was the commander in charge of the Black Hawk Down mission in Somalia. Tied to mercenaries in Afghanistan. Helped implement Guantanamo policies at Abu Ghraib on Rumsfeld's orders.
This "spiritual enemy," Boykin said in one talk, "will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus."
Boykin praised the leadership of President George W. Bush, saying that God appointed Bush as president for "such a time as this."
"George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States," Boykin said. "He was appointed by God."
How quickly we forget. A man who espoused so much fundamentalist diatribe that W. even had to distance himself from the man. Not because they didn't agree on many things. Not because he didn't approve of his implementation of policies. No, Boykin just couldn't keep his mouth shut.
October 2003
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has assigned the task of tracking down and eliminating Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and other high-profile targets to an Army general who sees the war on terrorism as a clash between Judeo-Christian values and Satan.
Yet the former commander and 13-year veteran of the Army's top-secret Delta Force is also an outspoken evangelical Christian who appeared in dress uniform and polished jump boots before a religious group in Oregon in June to declare that radical Islamists hated the United States "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian ... and the enemy is a guy named Satan."
Discussing the battle against a Muslim warlord in Somalia, Boykin told another audience, "I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."
Boykin is long gone now but his Iraq legacy lives in infamy.
General Boykin is CREATED FOR BATTLE
And we're surprised that proselytizing goes on in the Army? In everyone's mind Bush led with a divine right
George W. Bush:
I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me: George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq and I did.
How did "God" tell everyone to treat Muslim detainees?