Boykin: Winning means patience

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Boykin: Winning means patience

Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin speaks Friday evening at Fayetteville Christian School.

By Henry Cuningham, Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, North Carolina), May 26, 2007

America is at a crossroads in Iraq between controlling its destiny and surrendering control to others, Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin told a high school graduating class Friday night.

“Winning means sacrifice,” Boykin said. “Winning means time. Winning means patience. Losing means the world chooses our future for us, and it’s not the future we want.”

Boykin spoke at Manna Church for the graduation ceremony of Fayetteville Christian School, which has chapel services, Bible class and school prayer. Fifty-two seniors graduated.

“There are many things to think about as we think about the concept of not winning in Iraq,” Boykin said. “Those who advocate pulling out now short of victory have not thought this all the way through, in my opinion. You will be part of deciding our future.” Many graduates will vote for the first time this fall, he said.

Boykin, a North Carolina native, is deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence. He appeared in his Army uniform, but he told the audience that the views he expressed were his own and not those of the secretary of defense. He acknowledged the controversy over his previous remarks at similar events in recent years. The Pentagon inspector general in August 2004 issued a 44-page report on his speeches at 23 religious-oriented events “which were perceived by outside observers as derogatory to the Islamic faith or otherwise ‘inflammatory.’”

At times during the speech, Boykin held a Bible in his right hand and frequently cited biblical passages.

Boykin said radical Islamic ideology received its first enormous boost worldwide from the capture of 53 hostages from the U.S. embassy in Iran in 1979. Boykin participated in the unsuccessful rescue attempt in 1980 as a member of Delta Force. The second boost came 10 years later when the Soviet Union was driven out of Afghanistan, he said. Leaving Iraq too soon would give those same elements an even bigger boost, he said.

“If we enhance the recruiting of this jihadist cause, there will be an attempt to re-establish the (Islamic) caliphate, the caliphate that twice has gone all the way across the Pyrenees, up to the gates of Vienna and been turned back twice,” Boykin said. “I am concerned that it will be difficult for Europe to stand and that you will have a re-established caliphate sitting on 58 percent of the world’s oil.”

Quoting Job
At Fort Bragg, Boykin has been commander of Delta Force, the U.S. Army Special Forces Command and the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. On June 8, he ends his Army career, which began in 1971.

He closed his remarks by citing a remark of Job, who lost everything and said, “This much I know, that my redeemer lives, and one day I’m going to see him face to face.”

"The redeemer for this nation, the redeemer for all of us, lives, and we have to choose whether we will follow him or whether we will reject him. That is the most important decision and choice you will make.”

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