Pentagon To Review Training Materials That List Evangelical Christianity And Catholicism As “Religious Extremism”…

Via CNS News:

The Department of Defense will review its military training materials following a coalition of religious liberty advocates expressing outrage in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Christianity is described in the materials as “religious extremism” based, in part, on categorization provided to the government by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The letter, signed by a large coalition that includes the Family Research Council, American Values, Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty (CARL), Judicial Watch and the Media Research Center – the parent organization of CNSNews.com – is the culmination of a sequence of events that began with a non-commissioned officer telling CARL about the training materials. […]

Orthodox Judaism is also on the “extremism” list, along with the Klu Klux Kan, the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda.

CNSNews.com asked DOD if the secretary would respond to the letter and received an email response from Nathan Christensen, DOD spokesman who began by saying that it would be “inappropriate” for him to speak for Hagel.

“However, I can tell you that the Department is taking four actions,” Christensen told CNSNews.com. “First, the Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness has directed the Services to complete a review of their MEO training programs to ensure it comports with policy and guidance.

Keep reading…

Source: Weasel Zippers

The Obama Doctrine Revealed

American Thinker

The basic foreign policy principles of various presidencies have been dubbed “doctrines.” In most cases such “doctrines” are gleaned from the practices of a given president’s foreign policy and pieced together from various official documents and even memos. One notable exception being  the Monroe Doctrine which was put forward as a public doctrine and a warning to European countries.

Introduced on December 2, 1823, in President Monroe’s state of the union speech, it basically warned European nations to butt out of  South America and the Americas generally. In return the US would butt out of European affairs. By contrast the Bush Doctrine was never put forward as a formal document but is a codification of Bush administration practices and the justification advanced defending those practices. Basically the Bush doctrine is that the US has the right to intervene  in foreign countries and depose regimes that pose a threat to the US and to advance the cause of democracy in such areas of conflict.

Similarly, The Obama administration has never put forward a Monroe-like doctrine of its approach to foreign policy. Rather the public is treated to sonorous pieties about mutual respect and bringing old adversaries together in the spirit of mutual cooperation with benefit to all.

But now an Obama doctrine has emerged. And the irony is that the basics of the Obama doctrine have been revealed in a New York Times article designed to remove the Benghazi stain from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State. It is a revisionist piece claiming that Al Qaeda was not involved in the attack on the American consulate. Here is an account from The Weekly Standard: