Global Eye---Divine Afflatus

["Ken Hanly" <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is from the Moscow Times...cheers Ken Hanly


Global Eye -- Divine Afflatus

By Chris Floyd



You will be much relieved to know that President Bush's witless dithering
while the Holy Land burns is, in fact, a manifestation of the will of God.
That's because Witless was appointed to his post not, as you might think, by
five corrupt bagmen on the Supreme Court, but by the Almighty Himself.

The revelation of this divine anointing was proclaimed at a Texas church
this week -- on Easter Sunday no less -- in the presence of Bush the Father
and Bush the Son. The latter received the Word of his apotheosis with a
humble chuckle and lordly nod of his head, AP reports, as the Reverend
Michael Taylor of Canaan Baptist Church looked back on the glorious five
weeks of recount litigation that parked Junior's blessed butt in the Oval
Office.

"My friend, President Bush, for us who believe, that day of the counting it
was all over but the shouting," cried Taylor, as the rafters rang with
"Amen!" from the congregation. The recount result, Taylor said, was "the
will of God, who appoints those who are in authority to be there."
(Including, of course, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Slobodan Milosevic, Pol
Pot, Saddam Hussein, Mullah Omar, Idi Amin, Ayatollah Khomeini, King George
III -- God's little sunbeams every one, raised up and confirmed in power by
His mighty hand.)

Taylor promised there would be "blessings to the believer" on the final day
of reckoning, but warned that God would take a break from meddling in
electoral politics to "launch the most terrifying judgement on the
unbelievers," who will burn in eternal hellfire for their failure to
subscribe to the narrow set of superstitions, prejudices and self-selected
cultural norms embraced by a certain number of white American
fundamentalists in the early 21st century.

Braced by this message of exquisite theological subtlety, Bush ran out and
ordered the divinely appointed leader of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser
Arafat, to "denounce terrorism" by making a speech, in Arabic, to that
effect to his people. At that very moment, of course, Arafat was barricaded
in his office by the divinely appointed Ariel Sharon, with no electricity
and no access to communications, save for a few cell phones with fading
batteries, and Israeli tanks pointing their gun barrels at the door.

Bush also urged Arafat to use his Palestinian Authority police to "do more"
to round up suspected terrorists. At that very moment, of course, Israeli
military forces were arresting and/or shooting Palestinian Authority police
by the hundreds and destroying their offices all across the West Bank,
effectively destroying their ability to operate in any capacity whatsoever.

Hellbound disbelievers in Bush's divine wisdom might be forgiven (as if
hellbound disbelievers could be forgiven, of course!) for thinking these
presidential adjurations were nothing more than the senseless blatherings of
a weak and ignorant mind overwhelmed by events. But as always, hellbound
disbelievers would be wrong.

Yes, it's true that Bush's words bore little relation to reality (when do
they ever?), but surely we have learned by now that there is method in his
mouthing madness. He can spew any number of contradictions -- such as
supporting a United Nations call for Israeli withdrawal while also approving
the Israeli incursions, and so on -- for one simple reason: He doesn't care.

Bush doesn't care how many Palestinian grandmothers are shot dead on their
way to the hospital by Israeli snipers. He doesn't care how many Israeli
teenagers are blown to bits at Passover celebrations. He doesn't care how
many Palestinian children grow up in squalor and captivity, how many Israeli
children live in fear and trembling every day of their lives. He doesn't
care how brutalized both peoples become, how hardened by hate, their
humanity numbed and diminished by killing.

For 14 months, Bush sat on his hands, downgrading the peace process to a
backwater for low-level functionaries and retired errand boys. The unfolding
 horror in the Holy Land was only a sideshow to the main events: the coming
invasion of oil-rich Iraq and the projection of U.S. dominance over oil-rich
Central Asia. Plans for the attack on Afghanistan were finalized (and
communicated to the Taliban) in the summer of 2001 -- well before bin
Laden's pre-emptive strike. And of course, Daddy's folly in keeping Saddam
in power after the Gulf War -- and Daddy's crimes in betraying the Shiites
and Kurds who, at his urging, rebelled against the Iraqi regime -- must be
erased from history; that was a given from Day One of Junior's
administration. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be left to simmer --
even at a high heat -- as long as it didn't spill over and interfere with
grand strategy. The death and suffering of those trapped in the conflict
meant nothing to a man busy "reordering the world" according to God's
will -- and the greed of his partners.




But now the pot has boiled over -- and Bush's irritation at having to deal
with such trivia was palpable. For days, he bristled testily at questions
about his Mideast "policy" -- which is of course no policy at all, except to
get those hellbound Jews and heathen Arabs to shut up already so he can get
on with the godly business of killing Iraqis and pumping black gold from the
Caspian basin.

By midweek, however, Bush grew calmer, heartened by a headline that gave joy
to all those who hunger and thirst after righteousness:

"Oil Prices Rise Amid Mideast Turmoil."

Ah yes, the Lord looks after His own.