Army Sticks ‘War on Islam’ Teacher in Bureaucratic Depths

Once, Army Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley’s superiors wrote that he was a “must-select” for command and promotion to full colonel. Then Dooley taught a class to senior U.S. officers musing about a “total war” on Islam, which the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey, shut down. Now, Dooley has his next assignment — deep in the bowels of the Army bureaucracy, far from command.

Dooley’s Army career has been in jeopardy after he received an administrative reprimand for his elective course at the Joint Forces Staff College, which discussed using “Hiroshima”-style tactics against Islam’s holiest cities as part of a “total war.” But the Army didn’t fire Dooley. It sent him to bureaucratic limbo instead.

On Nov. 1, Dooley was assigned to Fort Eustis, Virginia at the Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC), Danger Room has confirmed, one of the warren of offices where the Army thinks about the future of land warfare. Specifically, Dooley works in the Lethality Branch of the Maneuver, Aviation & Soldier Division. Dooley doesn’t actually use any experimental weaponry: He pushes paper on the development of ground robots, new sensors and other stuff to other Army offices. It took several ARCIC public-affairs officers three days to substantively describe what it is Dooley does.