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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Good Grief

From down at Foreign Policy, we have this article by Blake Hounshell, at their website, "Seymour Hersh unleashed".  Mr Hersh holds forth on US foreign policy and suggests that we are on a "crusade" to protect Christianity and that it all started in Vice President Chaney's office. And thus the quote begins.
"That's the attitude," he continued. "We're gonna change mosques into cathedrals. That's an attitude that pervades, I'm here to say, a large percentage of the Joint Special Operations Command."

He then alleged that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC before briefly becoming the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and his successor, Vice Adm. William McRaven, as well as many within JSOC, "are all members of, or at least supporters of, Knights of Malta."

Hersh may have been referring to the Sovereign Order of Malta, a Roman Catholic organization commited to "defence of the Faith and assistance to the poor and the suffering," according to its website.

"Many of them are members of Opus Dei," Hersh continued. "They do see what they're doing -- and this is not an atypical attitude among some military -- it's a crusade, literally. They seem themselves as the protectors of the Christians. They're protecting them from the Muslims [as in] the 13th century. And this is their function."

"They have little insignias, these coins they pass among each other, which are crusader coins," he continued. "They have insignia that reflect the whole notion that this is a culture war. … Right now, there’s a tremendous, tremendous amount of anti-Muslim feeling in the military community.”
The Knights of Malta and Opes Dei in cahoots?  Not usually.

And, General Stanley McCrystal is an unlikely member of either the Knights of Malta or Opes Dei, both Roman Catholic organizations.  Possible, but not likely.  His brother, retired Army Colonel and Chaplain, Scott McCrystal, is the endorsing agent for the Assemblies of God, a protestant Pentecostal denomination.

In the United States Knights of Malta are usually people who have helped the local Cardinal Archbishop with Charitable activities.  In Lowell, the late Joe Sullivan is an example.  A wonderful man, whose time in the Service was as a medic.  Not your typical Special Forces soldier, and from the World War II era anyway.

Insignia, coins?  Just about every military organization has a "challenge coin" that identifies members of that unit to one another.  Forget your coin and you buy the next round, if challenged.  The coin tends to have insignia associated with unit.  I have one given to me when I was in Oklahoma City, by a member of the National Air Training Center, Air and Marine, Customs and Border Patrol.  Nothing about crusades on the obverse or reverse.  The same with military "challenge coins" I have seen.

As for protecting Christians, if that is the mission of the Joint Special Operations Command, they are doing a very poor job of it, as can been seen by the current situation of Copts in Egypt and Christians across the Near and Middle East.  The status of religious freedom around the world, as assessed by the US Department of State can be found here.  A less secular view can be found here.  See especially Page 3.

I think Mr Seymour Hersh is off base here and is not speaking in the light of the new civility we have been encouraged to adopt.

But, since Mr Hersh is not ultramontane, he will likely avoid much criticism.

Regards  —  Cliff

  I am looking for something besides "Right" to describe that crowd of Republicans, Tea Party people and perhaps even Libertarians.

4 comments:

The New Englander said...

Cliff, I loved the paragraph near the bottom about the Copts and other Christian minority groups. Now THERE is an indelicate subject. Is there an antonym for "cause celebre" out there? I might have to write to "Word Fugitives" in the Atlantic to find it...how many pampered western trustafarians are rallying to their cause?

C R Krieger said...

"Trustafarians".  I love it!

Regards  —  Cliff

Jack Mitchell said...

There is no doubt in my 24 hour military thinking mind that an element of "crusade" existed in the decisions that engulfed our nation in two wars.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dubya are bottom line corporatist with a flare for thumpin the good book. It gets the congregation riled.

Plus there is stuff like this:
The Air Force said yesterday it is creating a task force to address the religious climate at the U.S. Air Force Academy, following allegations that its faculty and staff have pressured cadets to convert to evangelical Christianity.

That said, Mr.Hersh appears to be connecting several dots too many. I am particularly skeptical of charges made against Catholics. A religion I have abandoned for several reasons. None of which are based on wild conspiracy theories and superstitious rumor mongering.

I'm not sure what Hersh is up to. But he should focus more on Texan mega-churches, than Vatican City, based on what I have seen.

The culprit is Jacques DeMolay. ;v)

C R Krieger said...

Jack's comment about the Air Force Academy, my Alma Mater, is correct.  But, it works against the Knights of Malta and Opus Dei meme.  Back in the day, when we had mandatory chapel, this didn't seem to be a problem.  Just saying.

Regards  —  Cliff