A Pentagon adviser is blasting what he calls an "egregious" and "politically correct" decision by the U.S. military to destroy Bibles sent to troops in Afghanistan.Reuters reported earlier this week that Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated by chaplains and later destroyed to make sure that troops did not violate rules which bar them from sharing their faith. According to the report, the Bibles were destroyed after Al Jazeera television showed soldiers at a Bible class on a base with a stack of Bibles translated into the local Pashto and Dari languages. Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis (USA-Ret.) is a Pentagon adviser and military and national security analyst.
He finds it mind-boggling to think that military officials would allow Al Jazeera to walk through the front gate of a forward operating base and videotape soldiers conducting a Bible study. "This is a bit disingenuous, I think, that you would have a Saudi Arabian-sponsored Al Jazeera television network making tapes on an American facility of a Bible group so that they could target and discriminate against our soldiers," he notes.
Christian troops give up a great deal to put themselves in harm's way, so they should not have to give up their own personal witness in that environment, according to Maginnis. "By and large, soldiers should have the right to share their faith wherever they are," he contends, "and for the political correctness crew to come aboard and declare that we're going to destroy Bibles because of the sensitivity of the local command, I find egregious."
