George Bush's Holy Crusade in Iraq

We're on a mission from God.

-- The Blues Brothers

I do believe there is an Almighty, and I believe a gift of that Almighty to all is freedom. And I will tell you that is a principle that no one can convince me that doesn’t exist.

-- George Bush

I've been pretty tough on the prez -- calling him everything from a coward to a crackpot -- but there is one thing that I have not criticized him for: His messianic faith-based convictions.

Well, Mr. Bush, time's up.

By way of introduction to this subject, I should note that there is an aspect of George Bush's life of which I am deeply respectful: His successful battle to overcome a drinking problem and probably a drug problem, as well. (Although some would say that an addict's recovery cannot be complete without humility, which he seems to not have a shred of.)

It was through this catharsis that he has said he found religion, and as president his speeches have been suffused with allusions to the Almighty. Indeed, he believes that as the Leader of the Free World he is nothing less than on a mission from God and channels the wisdom of the Holy Son.

That's okey-dokey with me, but as was the case when Bush was boozing and snorting cocaine, he seems to do nothing in moderation – except of course when it comes to intellectual curiosity.

So his view that the Iraq war has an eschatological underpinning and therefore is the right thing to do is appalling.

It does not matter if the president came to the view that God is America's tailgunner in Iraq as his neoconservative coven planned the war or after it started going badly. I suspect the latter, because I also believe that while Bush may have God in his head and on his Teleprompter, there's damned little of the spiritual in his heart. The man is flat out delusional when it comes to the place in a non-sectarian state that religion has, but he is delusional in a cynically pragmatic sort of way. (Thank you, Uncle Karl.)

We also know that Bush has curried favor with the right-wingnut Christianists whose agenda he tiresomely extols, although despite a lot of bravado and federal dough for faith-based programs, for the most part he has merely used this segment of his now miniscule political base for his own ends. (Ditto, Uncle Karl).

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What makes George Bush's embrace of His God in beating the drum for His War even more problematic is that war is being fought in a part of the world where the seeds of Christianity and Islam were sewn.

Then there is the little matter of the Islamic jihad against the West. Having worn out previous rationales for the Iraq war, the president now natters endlessly that the war actually is all about defeating those nasty Islamic insurgents in Iraq who launched the 9/11 attacks – a kind of reverse Crusade, if you will.

The Crusades are, in fact, an apt analogy because Islam has been depicted in the GWOT as a dark religion shot through with ignorance and anger that is quite literally a threat to people of the Christian persuasion.

That happens to be true, it's just that a mere fraction of the 1.4 billion people who are Muslims want to kill you and I, our children and Uncle Stanley. It also is my belief that damned few put destroying the American infidel ahead of having food on the table and a roof over their heads. Some health care, a little education and a national government unlike those in Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh that treat them as offal would be nice, too.

A great thing about the Christian Bible is that it is like a big vending machine with pastries, cakes, candy, chewing gum and breath mints. There is something in it for almost everyone, so it's useless to quote one of the Holy Dudes in declaring that George Bush is a sinner or a savior.

I happen to worship at home and my God is a little bit of everyone else's. World travel will do that to you. But it does say in my Bible that if you plant ice you're going to harvest wind. No matter who your God may be, George Bush has incurred the wrath of his, and Iraq, America and the world are worse off as a result.