Uncle Watch V
I’m going to have to stop doing this, or I’ll be here for ever. Uncle calls for fairness and accuracy, but doesn’t appear to know what those things are. He criticises Maxine McKew for her characterisation of US Lieutenant-General William Boykin. She said:
… this is something I saw on the front page of the ‘Sydney Morning Herald’.
Why wouldn’t Muslims perhaps think in the way Dr Mahathir does when they see that a that a senior Pentagon general, US General William Boykin, says he believes he’s on a mission from God, as he says against radical Islamists because he wants to protect America’s Judeo-Christian tradition.
If this is not anything but a crude recall of the crusades, I don’t know what it is.
Uncle tells us:
This is what Boykin said:
Speaking in uniform before a Christian group in June, Boykin claimed “radical Islamists” hate America “because we’re a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian…and the enemy is a guy named Satan.”
Well, yes and no. If Uncle had followed McKew’s reference and looked up the relevant article in the Sydney Morning Herald, he would know that Boykin has regularly said a lot more:
In June, General Boykin told a religious group in Oregon that radical Islamists hated the US “because we’re a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian . . . and the enemy is a guy named Satan”.
Of his role in the battle against a Muslim warlord in Somalia, he 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.”
Last year, he said: “We in the army of God, in the house of God, kingdom of God, have been raised for such a time as this.” He has also said of President George Bush: “He’s in the White House because God put him there.”
Claiming to be “in the army of God” when fighting a Muslim enemy is definitely “a crude recall of the crusades”.
But even if you accept Uncle’s apologia for Boykin, his indictment of Kevin Rudd is hardly fair. When Rudd said, “General Boykin should be sent on gardening leave,” Uncle claims he caved in to McKew and isn’t up to his job. But when the Liberal Member for Flinders, Greg Hunt, says “I think the General Boykin’s comments are just as silly and repugnant as those made by Dr Mahathir,” Uncle is mute.
All we’re asking for is even-handed coverage. Right, Uncle?
