(Posted at Dailykos.com under user ARODB)
When I first heard this appointment mentioned by an author during an interview, I froze the program to check whether it was true. I know of Boykin well, so I
doubted that Cruz would be so reckless as to identify with this man.
But he has, and here's the link of his 23 member advisory board from the Cruz for President website.
The following are members of Ted Cruz's national security coalition:
first 4 in alphabetical order deleted
Lt. General William G. "Jerry" Boykin is a retired US Army Delta Force and Green Beret commander and the Executive Vice President of the Family Research Council.
New York State is not Mississippi. It is the where Republicans in recent memory included those liberals such as Senator Jacob Javits, who was one of the political descendants of a man who wouldn't be allowed past the entrance of their convention this July in Cleveland, trustbuster and environmentalist Theodore Roosevelt. As of now this story is not reaching those who will be voting in the primary April 19th (I had to search for it), so the N.Y. Republican will not know what a vote for Cruz would mean. With this appointment he hTed Cruz appoints Crusader General Jerry Boykin as Foreign Policy Advisoras tipped his hand, We are not faced with guessing whether he shares the religious extremism of his father, as he has by this appointment defined himself as the dominionist evangelical that is more than a tactical position, but a passion that overrides all other national exigencies.
Regime change in Iraq is certainly a short term (measured in decades) disaster, but it being an epoch defining catastrophe, as it may be, will only have been because Bush-Cheney and Rumsfeld allowed the process of debathification to be derailed by a perverse Christian--Jingoist agenda. The degradations of the Muslim "heathens" at the Abu Graibe prisons across the country, the seed for the Islamic Caliphate, were not an aberration, but the mission of those such as Ted Cruz' advisor. Crudely overt in Boykin, and now endorsed by this Presidential candidate.
For those who don't know who Boykin is, there is this extensive , section in Wikipedia of his dispensing Christian values as a reason for defeating Islamic Iraq - which may be fine over a beer at the mess hall, but quite different in formal speeches in full U.S. General's Uniform. I'll include a few excerpts:
Boykin, a born-again Christian, has gained attention for his Christian views over the years and some of his public remarks which cast the War on Terror in religious terms have generated considerable controversy.[10] A Pentagon investigation concluded in 2004 that he had violated regulations by failing to explain these remarks were not made in an official capacity.[11]
Several publications, such as Newsweek,[18] carried articles calling for his resignation, while Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) were quick to denounce the remarks. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-VA) and Democrat Carl Levin both urged Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to launch an investigation.[16] Rep. John Conyers (D-MD) and 26 supporters put forward H. RES. 419 "Condemning religiously intolerant remarks and calling on the President to clearly censure and reassign Lieutenant General Boykin".[19]
This videoed speech is titled, "The Church must rise up" and within the first few minutes he shares his biblical mandate for Christians to resist enemies, interesting note, at 6 minutes, he warns that the danger is "they will hand you over to synagogues, and you will be put in prisons " I didn't bother to watch the entire 26 minutes, as I got the gist.
It is Boykin's mentality, and his public speeches that framed the Iraq War as being Christians against Muslims, that was one reason for the hatred that is now expressed by the Islamic Caliphate towards infidels. Cruz and Trump both know that what Boykin says in public is felt by a sizable chunk of those in the Republican party, but hopefully this is a minority of voting Americans.
Cruz has made a decision not to condemn this man, as Trump did belatedly of David Duke, but to affirm his position by bringing him into his team. The words he speaks are thus tacitly endorsed by the candidate for this country that does not have a national religion. Jerry Boykin never bought into that, and has during his military career spoken as if Christianity is America.
We now know Ted Cruz just a little bit better. His single minded unrelenting audacity has long been on display, which has made him hated among his peers. With this appointment, we have a clearer idea of what his goals are for this country .
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