God forbid that Rumsfeld should do this!
Mr. Rumsfeld had made a mistake in refusing to criticize General Boykin, and that he had allowed personal loyalty to get in the way of political wisdom.
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October 22, 2003
General Was Wrong on Islam, Bush Says
By DOUGLAS JEHL
ASHINGTON, Oct. 22 — President Bush said today that he disagreed with comments by a top Pentagon general who has cast the campaign against terrorism in religious terms, but the Defense Department said the officer would not be reassigned.
Mr. Bush, talking with reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to Australia, did not say whether he thought the officer, Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, should be disciplined for comments likening the battle against Islamic militants to a struggle against Satan. But the president did say that he had told Muslim clerics during meetings in Indonesia that the general's statement "didn't reflect my opinion" nor "reflect what the government thinks."
Mr. Bush's comments were the first he has made publicly about General Boykin's remarks, and they came as some Congressional Republicans began to suggest that General Boykin be moved aside temporarily or even resign.
"The political reality up here is that no one thinks Boykin will survive," said a senior Congressional Republican official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Although Senator John Warner, who heads the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been among those voices calling for General Boykin's temporary reassignment, a Pentagon spokesman, Larry DiRita, said today that "nobody's thinking about asking him to step aside."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters on Tuesday that General Boykin had requested an internal investigation, a request that Mr. Rumsfeld said he endorsed. But Mr. Rumsfeld declined to criticize the general's comments.
The general, a highly decorated Army officer, who was confirmed by the Senate in June as deputy under secretary of defense for intelligence, came under criticism last week, when NBC News and The Los Angeles Times reported details of comments he had made in talks at Christian evangelical churches: that the enemy in the war on terrorism is Satan, that God put Mr. Bush in the White House, and that a prominent Muslim militia leader in Somalia is an idol-worshiper.
On Friday, the Pentagon issued a statement in which General Boykin said he wanted to apologize "to those who have been offended by my statements." But the general also made clear that he had no intention of resigning and that he believed that at least some of his remarks had been taken out of context.
The same day, Senator Warner, Republican of Virginia, and Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, wrote a letter to Mr. Rumsfeld in which they asked that an internal investigation be conducted. On Tuesday, Senator Warner made his criticism public, saying on the Senate floor that General Boykin should step aside in order to focus on responding to the investigation.
"When you start trying to explain what you did say, you need time out to do a little study," Senator Warner said. Representative Jim Turner, a Texas Democrat, who met with Mr. Rumsfeld this morning, said he also favored reassigning General Boykin in order to send a message "that the war on terror is not a war on Islam."
Religious leaders from several denominations have spoken out against General Boykin's remarks, saying that they posed the danger of inflaming anti-American sentiment across the Islamic world.
Mr. Rumsfeld was to meet behind closed doors on Capitol Hill today with senators from both parties for a regular meeting on Iraq, but Congressional officials said they expected the issue of General Boykin to be raised.
A sense of Republican anger about Mr. Rumsfeld's handling of the matter was apparent on Capitol Hill this afternoon. Two Republican Congressional officials said that they believed that Mr. Rumsfeld had made a mistake in refusing to criticize General Boykin, and that he had allowed personal loyalty to get in the way of political wisdom.
nytimes.com |
