[A-List] Iraq: The Lord Made Me Do It, Says Bush

["Anyutka" <annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>]

http://www.tmtmetropolis.ru/stories/2003/06/27/120.html

Moscow Times

Global Eye -- Errand Boy

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 this 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 cease-fire in their uprising against Israeli forces,
described for them his recent summit with Ariel Sharon and 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 the United
States 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-Qaida 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?

'Road Map a Lifesaver for Us,' PM Abbas Tells Hamas
Haaretz, Thursday June 26, 2003