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June
30, 2003
The Revelation of St. George
"God
Instructed Me to Strike Saddam"
By CHRIS FLOYD
So now we know. After all the mountains of commentary
and speculation, all the earnest debates over motives and goals,
all the detailed analyses of global strategy and political ideology,
it all comes to down to this: George W. Bush waged war on Iraq
because, in his own words, God "instructed me to strike
at Saddam."
This gospel was revealed, appropriately
enough, in the Holy Land last week, through an unusual partnership
between the fractious children of Abraham. The Israeli newspaper
Haaretz was given transcripts of a negotiating session between
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and faction leaders
from Hamas and other militant groups. Abbas, who was trying to
persuade the groups to call a ceasefire in their uprising against
Israeli forces, described for them his recent summit with Ariel
Sharon and George W. Bush.
During the tense talks at the summit,
Bush sought to underscore the kind of authority he could bring
to efforts at achieving peace in the Middle East. While thundering
that there could be "no deals with terror groups,"
Bush sought to assure the rattled Palestinians that he also had
the ability to wring concessions from Sharon. And what was the
source of this wonder-working power? It was not, as you might
think, the ungodly size of the U.S. military or the gargantuan
amount of money and arms America pours into Israel year after
year.
No, Bush said he derived his moral heft
from the Almighty Himself. What's more, the Lord had proven his
devotion to the Crawford Crusader by crowning his military efforts
with success. In fact, he told Abbas, God was holding the door
open for Middle East peace right now--but they would have to
move fast, because soon the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe
would have to give His attention to something far more important:
the election of His little sunbeam, Georgie, in 2004.
Here are Bush's exact words, quoted by
Haaretz: "God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck
them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I
did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle
East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will
come and I will have to focus on them."
You can't put it plainer than that. The
whole chaotic rigmarole of Security Council votes and UN inspections
and Congressional approval and Colin Powell's whizbang Powerpoint
displays of "proof" and Bush's own tearful prayers
for "peace"--it was all a sham, a meaningless exercise.
No votes, no inspections, no proof or lack of proof--in fact,
no earthly reason whatsoever--could have stopped Bush's
aggressive war on Iraq. It was God's unalterable will: the Lord
of Hosts gave a direct order for George W. Bush to "strike
at Saddam."
And strike he did, with an awesome fury
that rained death and destruction on the mustachioed whore of
Babylon, with a firestorm of Godly wrath that consumed the enemy
armies like so much chaff put to the flame--and with an arsenal
of cruise missiles, cluster bombs, dive bombers and assault helicopters
that killed up to 10,000 innocent civilians: blasted to pieces
in their beds, shot down in their fields and streets, crushed
beneath the walls of their own houses, boiled alive in factories,
ditches, and cars, gutted, mutilated, beheaded, murdered, women,
children, elders, some praying, some wailing, some cursing, some
mute with fear as metal death ripped their lives away and left
rotting hulks behind. This was the work of the Lord and His faithful
servant, whom He hath raised high up to have dominion over men.
And this is the mindset--or rather, the
primitive fever-dream--that is now directing the actions of the
greatest military power in the history of the world. There can
be no doubt that Bush believes literally in the divine character
of his mission. He honestly and sincerely believes that whatever
"decision" forms in his brain--out of the flux and
flow of his own emotional impulses and biochemical reactions,
the flattery and cajolements of his sinister advisers, the random
scraps of fact, myth and fabrication that dribble into his proudly
undeveloped and incurious consciousness--has been planted there,
whole and perfected, by God Almighty.
And that's why Bush acts with such serenity
and ruthlessness. Nothing he does can be challenged on moral
grounds, however unethical or evil it might appear, because all
of his actions are directed by God. He can twist the truth, oppress
the poor, exalt the rich, despoil the earth, ignore the law--and
murder children--without the slightest compunction, the briefest
moment of doubt or self-reflection, because he believes, he truly
believes, that God squats in his brainpan and tells him what
to do.
And just as God countenanced deception
on the part of Abraham, just as God forgave David for the murders
he ordered, just as God blessed the armies of Saul as they obliterated
the Amalekites, man, woman and child, so will He overlook any
crime committed by Bush and his minions as they carry out His
will. That's why Bush can always "do whatever it takes"
to achieve his goals. And by his own words to Abbas, we see that
he places his election in 2004 above all other concerns, even
the endless bloodshed in the Middle East.
So what new crimes will the Lord have
to countenance to keep His appointed servant in power?
Chris Floyd
is a columnist for the Moscow Times and a regular contributor
to CounterPunch. He can be reached at: cfloyd72@hotmail.com
Weekend Edition
Features
M.
Shahid Alam
Bernard Lewis: Scholarship or Sophistry?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Meet Steven Griles: Big Oil's Inside
Man
Laura
Carlsen
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Alan Maass
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C.Y.
Gopinath
Bush and Kindergarten
Noah Leavitt
Bush, the Death Penalty and International Law
Joanne
Mariner
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Ignacio
Chapela
Tenure, Censorship and Biotech at Berkeley
Bob
Scowcroft
Bush's Squeeze on Organic Farmers
Jon Brown
Tom Delay: "I am the Government"
Kam
Zarrabi
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Ron Jacobs
Big Bill Broonzy's Conversation with the Blues
Julie
Hilden
Fear Factor: Art, Terror and the First Amendment
Adrien
Rain Burke
The Anarchists' Wedding Guide
Adam
Engel
US Troops Outta Times Square
Poets'
Basement
Witherup, Guthrie, Albert, Hamod
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