The Military-Evangelical Complex: Sources
War & Peace | —Author: Mike Innes Elements of the military sporting unofficial, religiously-inspired, poor-taste unit patches is one thing, but there's been an accumulation of reporting over the last few years on evangelical influences in the US military. I'll be indexing source reports on the issue here - if you know of one that's not listed, send me a note and I'll plug it in.
Mike Innes
A good discussion on this with Gulliver, Gunslinger and the crew at Ink Spots. Worth reading for the additional insider insights.
Mike Innes
An anonymous commenter left this remarkable note at Juan Cole's original post on bible-coded weapons sights:
Great post...but radical Evangelical influence has spread to other branches of the military as well. I served in the Marine Corps from 2000--2005 with the 3rd Marine Air Wing out of Camp Pendleton. My unit was in Kuwait from Feb. to May 2003, and the war was labeled a 'culture war' and a 'crusade' by our senior officers in the field from the start. Our Commanding Officer told us repeatedly that the Christian, Western culture was superior to the Arab, Islamic culture and that our job was to eliminate the latter as best we could. Muslim Marines in my unit were labeled 'anti-American' and 'al-Qaeda allies' immediately after 9/11. One Marine in my unit was interrogated daily by the senior enlisted men because he questioned Bush's motives for our invasion. The U.S. military has not been a friendly place for Muslim Americans to serve in; without a doubt many have experienced bigotry, hatred, assault, and extreme verbal and physical abuse.
Provides an interesting counter to some of the discussion points at Ink Spots.
Jan 20, 2010 at 2:57 
Reader Comments