While stories of political insensitivity or incorrectness sometimes shock the public (or political) conscience, those within the military often find such displays far less offensive — or rare.

A few years ago, US Air Force F-15 pilot 1Lt Ali Jivanjee was killed in an F-15 training accident.  He was a Muslim fighter pilot who took it upon himself to sign his name “Jihad” — apparently because he’d been “teased” (hazed? bullied?) about his first and middle names being “Ali Akbar” (similar to “Allahu akbar,” a phrase often connected to “jihadists,” for those that don’t make the connection).

His F-15 peers eventually named him “Danny Boy,” because he “needed a good Irish name.”

A fighter squadron is definitely not a bastion of political correctness, or cultural sensitivity.

A recent Military.com article notes the same theme throughout much of the rest of the military.  Makers of accoutrements — including unofficial military uniform patches — with variations of “American infidel” on them are doing gangbuster business: 

There are infidel hats, infidel T-shirts and infidel uniform patches — an entire genre of morale wear that emerged from the ashes of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks…

It started as a humorous tactic for poking fun at intolerant Islamists ignorant of American ideals.

Marine Corps Reserve Maj. Ramsey Sulayman, who is also a representative of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, claims the “anti-Muslim” apparel undermines the US mission:

“When you are trying to hold the moral high ground and you’re trying to say, ‘This is who we are and this is what we do’ – those sorts of incidents and the ‘Major League Infidel’ just erode that ground under your feet that you are trying to stand on. Pretty soon you’re in the swamp with everybody else,” Sulayman said.

One manufacturer, Clayton Montgomery, took issue, saying the slogans poke fun at oneself, not Islam.

Interestingly, with regard to Islam the slogans may technically be theologically incorrect.  By the strictest definitions, US troops are only infidels if they’re atheists.

Then again, the bullets and IEDs of the Taliban and al Qaeda don’t make that distinction.