Washington — The Pentagon says it will not fire a top U.S. general who has been spreading the word that the Lord put President George W. Bush in the White House to lead the fight against terrorism, and that Muslims worship an idol, not a "real God."
Mr. Bush himself sought to distance himself yesterday from the views of William (Jerry) Boykin, but that may not be enough to spare his administration continued embarrassment over the general, whose prayer-breakfast-circuit speeches have deeply offended many Muslims and undermined Washington's insistence that its war on terrorism is not a struggle against Islam.
"He didn't reflect my opinion," Mr. Bush said Wednesday on a visit to Bali. For the President, the furor is an echo of the one he caused two years ago when he called the war on terrorism a crusade, a term widely regarded in the Muslim world as meaning a religious war.
The Defence Department has ordered an inquiry as more of Lieutenant-General Boykin's controversial comments from recent years have been made public. Despite the uproar, a senior Pentagon aide defended a man he said had forged a "very distinguished" career.
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"When you weigh the preponderance of all those things, nobody's thinking about asking him to step aside," Lawrence Di Rita, chief of staff to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said yesterday, adding: "I'm not here to defend his statements and I don't intend to."
Gen. Boykin's sometimes surprising views include this explanation, issued during another of his speeches, of why Mr. Bush is President: "Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this."
Gen. Boykin, who requested the inquiry, has apologized to any who may have been offended by his comments. However, he has remained unrepentant about other controversial statements, including calling the United States a "Christian" country.
"My references to Judeo-Christian roots in America or our nation as a Christian nation are historically undeniable," the general said in a statement.
Gen. Boykin is a devout evangelical Christian, and a regular on the prayer-breakfast circuit, where he has painted the war on terrorism as a fight against "Satan," sometimes while wearing his medals and full uniform.
In one of his more dramatic anecdotes, he recounted an exchange with a local militia commander in Somalia, where he fought Muslim warlords as an elite Delta Force commander: "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."
Despite the Pentagon's support, Gen. Boykin may yet be jettisoned, especially if the controversy mushrooms.
Yesterday, Mr. Bush, during his visit to Indonesia — the world's most populous Muslim country — made a point of referring to Islam as "a peaceful religion" whose principal tenets are "peace and respect and tolerance."
The White House faces some tricky political calculus.
Mr. Bush's bedrock political support lies in the Christian heartland of America, and removing a three-star general for saying exactly what many of the President's supporters devoutly believe must be weighed against the damage caused abroad.
So far, the administration has tried to walk the fine line between distancing itself from Gen. Boykin's views and dumping him.
"This is not a war between religions," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said. "No one should describe it as such."
Some Republicans have even applauded the general's candour.
"The general is right," Indiana Representative Mike Pence said. "God is not neutral in this cause in the struggle between freedom and tyranny, between dictatorship and human dignity. Let it be said that in this Congress, God is on our side. And may it ever be so."
But others, including John Warner, the powerful chairman of the U.S. Senate armed services committee, have issued warnings about the risks posed by such rhetoric.
"Public statements by a senior military official of an inflammatory, offensive nature that would denigrate another religion and which could be construed as bigotry may easily be exploited by enemies of the United States and contribute to an erosion of support within the Arab world, and perhaps increased risk for members of the U.S. armed forces serving in Muslim nations," Mr. Warner said yesterday in a letter signed by several other senators.
