Bush's God controversy stirs press fury

[donsu]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4322228.stm


Papers in the Arabic world recoil at remarks attributed to President Bush by a Palestinian official, to the effect that God had told him to invade Iraq.

-snip-

(here are 3 of 5 examples)

"US President Bush told his Palestinian guests that he was driven with a mission from God... Had those statements come from an ordinary person, he would have been arrested straight away and taken to a lunatic asylum for treatment... Such statements cannot be made by someone who is mentally sound."

-------

"The statements attributed to US President Bush on God's message to fight terrorists in Afghanistan and end the tyranny in Iraq... indicate that America is striving to practise a series of firm ideological principles, even if this is a major source of detriment to US interests and the interests of the Middle East... The fallacy of Bush's ideology lies in the fact that Bush thinks it is America's right to decide people's fate."

------

"US President Bush has warned of "a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia"... This is simply a preposterous statement... It is illogical to rely on the views of small radical groups that have neither weight nor influence to create such a phantom called "radical Islamic empire"."

-snip-
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whose afraid of the big, bad bushgang

[patrice]

1. The problem is that "we" are so hungry for what is called meaning,

or purpose, or values, that this kind of talk is very attractive to those who have internalized the oppressor and cannot identify meaning/values/purpose independently. We're deeply hard wired for responses to this kind of stimulus.

[donsu]

2. don't include "me" . I'm not "hungry for meaning"

I'm hungry for justice.

[patrice]

3. I'm with you. I have a surfeit of meanings, my own and otherwise.

What I need now is Justice. That's not something you can create independently.

[cliss]

4. Yup, this is true.

I just got done reading a Swedish paper online. There, they are absolutely flabbergasted that the world's most powerful man can say stuff like this. They just can't wrap their minds around it.

Now, I have my own theories about why Bush spouts crap like this.

1) He truly believes God told him to invade Iraq. In which case, we need to haul this guy out in a straightjacket this afternoon.

2) He's pimping to his Christian fundamentalist base. He wants to show them he's "on their page" in terms of a Xian crusade, slay those heathen evildoers, Islam is the enemy, etc etc. But then he has a problem because not everybody is a Xian fanatic.

3) He's truly out of his mind; these are alcoholic delusions, he's got the DT's, (delirium tremens) we're in big trouble.

4) He's using God as an excuse for his own evil plans; namely take over the Middle East and suck out all their oil.

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I believe it's #2.

[indepat]

5. If these statements are factual, a person on a messianic mission

is also commander-in-chief of the world's most powerful military. I'd be scared shitless if we were not the good guys and God were not on our side.