The Pentagon's Next Crusade

Quite a bit has been made about "Operation Straight UP" (OSU), a fundamentalist organization that seeks to send Christian goodies like Josh McDowell books, bibles and of course the infamous "Left Behind" game. Apparently the group, which features bad boy actor turned evangelist Stephen Baldwin, was going to do a little Christian entertainment gig in Iraq called "Military Crusade."

As Michael Weinstein and Reza Aslan point out in an LA Times piece today entitled "Not So Fast, Christian Soldiers," Muslims kind of "bristle" at the word Crusade. Fortunately the Pentagon at the last hour came to its senses and realized that baptizing the Iraq War as a Christian holy war wouldn't do much for winning the peace. The problem is that in our volunteer army fundamentalist Christians are both big supporters and eager volunteers, making an already problematic war even more problematic.

The authors of this op-ed piece write:

American military and political officials must, at the very least, have the foresight not to promote crusade rhetoric in the midst of an already religion-tinged war. Many of our enemies in the Mideast already believe that the world is locked in a contest between Christianity and Islam. Why are our military officials validating this ludicrous claim with their own fiery religious rhetoric?

It's time to actively strip the so-called war on terror of its religious connotations, not add to them. Because religious wars are not just ugly, they are unwinnable. And despite what Operation Straight Up and its supporters in the Pentagon may think is taking place in Iraq, the Rapture is not a viable exit strategy.

If we hope to come out of this with a modicum of decency and order, then we must listen to this advice and stop speaking in cosmic terms. As the authors point out such a strategy only emboldens those who wish to wage such a war against the West.