What is Veterans Day, apart from a chance to get 0 percent financing on a new big-screen plasma high-def TV until 2009? Like the Vietnam Memorial, perhaps the most moving tribute to our veterans, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month is a day to remember. But to remember what?

Veterans Day was originally Armistice Day, in honor of the end of World War I and the four years of fighting that had torn countries apart. In 1954, after the World War II, President Eisenhower changed the name to Veterans Day, to honor all those who had fought in wars.

Six years into what the Bush administration is calling the Long War, and nearly 4,000 deaths later, the time has come to look at what we’re “remembering” on this day and what we’re fighting for. While the Bush administration has gone to great lengths to frame this war as part of larger struggle against an “Islamo-fascist” ideology, the question needs to be asked, can there be an Islamic ideology separate from an Islamic theology? The designation “Islamo” comes from the root Islamism, which is the body of political thought that uses Islamic law as the basis for its system of governance.

By linking Islamism to the war on terror, the administration has implicated that this is a religious war, or at the very least a war with religious overtones. This implication of a religious war is made even more disturbing by the current trend of increased proselytizing in the military. A military watchdog organization, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, filed a suit against the Pentagon and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in September on charges of attempting to force soldiers to embrace evangelical Christianity. The plaintiff is an atheist who alleges that when he attempted to organize a meeting of other atheist soldiers, one of his superiors threatened to charge him with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice and to prevent him from reenlisting.

David Antoon, a Vietnam veteran and retired Air Force colonel, recently wrote an extensive expose on “Christian supremacist rhetoric” during his son’s orientation at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Since 1966 the Army chaplain staff has grown by some 300 percent, from six to 18 chaplains, with all 12 new chaplains being evangelical. In the same time, the cadet population has decreased 25 percent. In addition, there are now 25 “reserve chaplains,” bringing the total up to 43 chaplains for 4,000 cadets. For more than a year, the official Academy newspaper has run ads saying that “we believe Jesus Christ is the only real hope for the World.”

In his expose, Antoon goes on to say, “The Christian supremacist fascism first reported at the Air Force Academy is endemic throughout the military . there has been a repudiation of constitutional values . in favor of religious ideology.”

This ideology is best seen in the actions of Ret. Maj. Gen. William Boykin, an outspoken evangelical who has said on numerous occasions that our “leadership is placed there by God.” Boykin was put in charge of the operation to track down bin Laden and at one point said that “they will only be defeated if we come against them in the name of Jesus.” Boykin, who had a habit of preaching in his military dress, has also openly supported torture and the methods used in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. News sources have since reported that Boykin has resigned, but information about his resignation is scarce.

These are only three examples among many. All of this suggests that despite what it might say, the Bush administration, if not explicitly supporting a religious war, is allowing one to spring up in the ranks of the military.

This is a true clash of ideologies, an Islamist ideology built on sharia law and an Americanist ideology built on evangelical salvation. While it hasn’t explicitly stated as much, the Bush administration’s actions are clearly geared toward pro-evangelical groups, which should not surprise anyone, with a president who believes he was called by God to lead the nation. The so-called Islamo-fascists that the administration is targeting are no more fascist than our government.

So as we pass this anniversary of war and memorials, stop and think. Michael Servetus, a 16th-century Spanish theologian, said, “To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man.” What are we fighting for? Is it for freedom and democracy? Or is it for a belief that people must accept Jesus into their lives and embrace salvation? Are we a nation on a Crusade?

– Quincy Miller is a senior in English from Altoona.