Who can dispute that Americans of all political and personal beliefs can now see that the nation is at a turning point in its history. It is hard to think otherwise.The president has led us into a war of civilizations and cultures. He says he is guided in all decisions by "the Almighty." He has done nothing that would give us reason to doubt that he truly believe this in his bones. Eerie, is it not, that the Al Qaeda killers who follow Osama bin Laden and seek to destroy the United States claim they have God on their side, too.
Is this an argument for moral equivalence? Absolutely not. Moreover, moral equivalency is not the grave issue before the American citizenry today. The state of our presidency—and perhaps the future of our country—is.
The president, who was led to born-again religion by Texas evangelists some years ago, after a wayward youth, spoke again of the will of God at his recent speech-cum-press conference. Referring to the war in Iraq, he said, "[F]reedom is not this country's gift to the world. Freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in this world." Then he added: "And, as the greatest power on the face of the earth, we have an obligation" to carry out the Lord's mission.
Some of Mr. Bush's own supporters have grown increasingly anxious about Iraq and its ramifications. In part, this is because of the continuing accumulation of documentary evidence that the president and his coterie of more secular hawks took the nation into a pre-emptive war against Iraq on the basis of hyped intelligence and false claims. The claims were that Iraq (1) was linked to the September 11, 2001, suicide-plane attacks on New York and Washington, (2) possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, and (3) posed a serious, urgent threat to the United States.
Many presidents have invoked God in speeches and policy decisions, especially during times of war when soldiers were dying for country. And most presidents have told lies of various kinds during their tenures. But I know of no president, certainly no modern president, who said he was acting in God's name while telling lies in order to prod the country into a war against an adversary that, though a vile dictatorship, was no real threat to our security—and had no significant link to the bin Laden forces that attacked us in 2001.
the man is clearly out of his sad little mind.
when poor people say god is talking to them, they get locked up in a mental hospitol, when the wealthy think that god is talking to them, they get the backing of the entire christian right. now thats an interesting double standard. apparently god only really talks to the rich.
