The Air Force, under pressure from evangelical Christian groups and members of Congress, softened its guidelines on religious expression yesterday to emphasize that superior officers may discuss their faith with subordinates and that chaplains will not be required to offer nonsectarian prayers.
“This does affirm every airman’s right, even the commanders’ right, to free exercise of religion, and that means sharing your faith,” said Maj. Gen. Charles C. Baldwin, the Air Force’s chief of chaplains.
Great, the AF culture is already religious enough as it is. Last major wing meeting with the doltish director, a full bird colonel, included two rounds of prayers and a complete lack of causality when the director explained how if we weren’t fighting them over there, AQ would be coming up into America from S. America. It was surreal, and I wanted to start giggling (in a manly way, of course) but I’m a lowly contractor so I kept my mouth shut.
It’s actually pretty well known that groups like Hezbollah, which of course have links to al Qaeda, have strong presences in South America. Remember the bombings of the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in the early 90s? Hezbollah supposedly has training camps in rural Argentina, too. Remember reading a New Yorker cover story on Islamist groups in South American a few years back.
Not saying that’s a sane reason for the invasion of Iraq, but Islamist groups are present in South America.
I can only imagine someone with so much to gain from American distraction like Chavez would be a huge fan of that…but it does not excuse the way so many high ranking military figures consider it acceptable to pin together what ultimately amount to unproven conspiracy theories and state them in serious contexts, relying on rank and seniority to avoid ridicule from others. It’s a disgrace, and doubly so when so many real world problems are glossed over by their tinfoil hat bullshit. You can talk about Hezbollah in Argentina in the past or present all you want…they should be focusing on Al Qaeda in Iraq in 2006, or at least any of the millions of things that pose a concrete threat rather than an imaginary one.
