Does diplomacy mean anything to man who believes he’s on a jihad? If this is true, can there be even a shred of doubt that there was absolutely no way to dissuade Bush from war, and talk of it being a “reluctant last resort” was utter bullshit? When God tells you to do battle, you do battle. UN and diplomacy be damned.
I really, really hope this isn’t true. I will comfort myself with the fact that this is from “Those close to Mr Bush” and MAYBE not really how he feels.
Thank you for posting this, astro. I’ve long been tempted to start a “Eschatology in the Oval Office” thread over in great debates. The Saudis have already brought this up in recent political wrangling. I find even the vaguest possibility of this being true to be extremely alarming. While discussing religion with an Orthodox Christian a while back, I asked him if he was hoping for Armageddon. His reply was that he joyously anticipated this as it would bring with it Christ’s return to earth.
Shrub has sufficient fundamentalist leanings whereby I am unable to dismiss this notion. That he may be precipitating events in the Middle East in order propagate his own vision of the “end times” is an unspeakable horror. The best selling nature of Tim LeHaye’s books dealing with the “end times” speaks volumes about Christian America’s predilection for this subject. One need only consider the gigantic popularity of the “Left Behind” series to obtain confirmation of this fact.
Shrub must be ousted from office quickly as possible before he irreparably damages America’s image as a polytheistic nation. His repeated blatting about God in his speechmaking projects a wrongheaded and irresponsible attitude for leadership to have. His divisive cabinet choices have begun to drive damaging wedges into America’s political heart. The enormous conflicts of interest manifested by Shrub’s ties to big oil and big business in general have utterly tainted any vestiges of moral justification America might have for intervening in Iraq.
America cannot afford to have any sort of religious scheming as the basis of its foreign policy. Shrub’s repeated attempts to irreversibly blur the separation of church and state is treasonous and un-American. In addition, his incessant invocation of an obviously Christian God paints terrorist crosshairs on every American’s back and encourages further attacks. Our country deserves competent leadership by a properly elected executive who is able to prevent their own religion from influencing vital affairs of state. Evidently, this is impossible for Shrub and by continuing to do so he has permanently disqualified himself from further participation in Federal politics.
Cheney would suceed Bush if he left office early.
Does he share these apocalyptic views?
Excellent post, ** Zenster. **
Is Bush responsible for putting God in Declaration of Independence? Or “One Nation Under God” in the Pledge? Or “In God We Trust” on coins? God has been an important part of our nation long before any of us were born, Bush is no more ‘fundamentalist’ than any of our forefathers.
From
this site we see:
I’m reminded of James Watt, Sec. of Interior under Reagan who said something like “We don’t have to protect the environment, the Second Coming is at hand.”
I hope GWB doesn’t have a similar attitude; that nothing he does will matter in the long run because he’ll be raptured out of whatever mess he creates.
Here’s some commentary on the BBC article and a BBC TV program on this subject that was broadcast on C-SPAN over the weekend.
http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/2003_04.html#003408
from http://www.pejmanesque.com/archives/002207.html
I was watching the program intermittently, so I can’t verify these. But I was shocked at how they were grasping at straws to make the Bush-as-millennialist point.
I’d consider the source, if I were you.
While I don’t consider your own views an unspeakable horror, I am becoming increasingly afraid at how you and many others are way overreacting to some “vaguest possibility”.
I’m sure the thousands more Iraqis Saddam would torture and kill would congratulate you on your morality. Frankly, it’s views like this that are destroying the credibility the entire left, not just to me and other Americans, but also to many Iraqis.
How did we get to the condition of separation of church and state that has increased from the beginnings of the USA (that Bush is supposedly destroying) if the destruction is irreversible?
“Treasonous”??? See my above remarks about overreacting.
IMHO, to “call upon God’s blessing in fighting a pernicious enemy” is VERY different from being “convinced that God was calling him to engage the forces of evil in battle”.
Asking for God’s blessing is a far cry from believing He has picked you to lead a holy war against evil.
Bush is far more fundamentalist than at least some of our Forefathers.
Thank you, Lissa. This situation is rather worrisome.
Please read my response to McDuff’s, The Cost of War thread before you continue to make such unbased assumptions. You are evidently rather unaware of my stance on this war. Feel free to post there with your own read on McDuff’s position. I’d be interested to see what you have to share.
Does anyone have any actual EVIDENCE Bush believes he’s playing a part in Armageddon? Any evidence at all?
I didn’t realize the United States was a polytheistic nation. :eek: Well, there might be some Americans who worhip Odin, Jupiter or Zeus. And a lot of Americans worship the Almighty Dollar. 
Other than that, I pretty well agree with the rest of your post.
Would you care to be more specific about what you mean by “Shrub must be ousted from office quickly [sic] as possible”, Zenster?
Impeachment hearings? Based on what? I don’t hear any calls for his impeachment from any congressmen/women.
Or were you thinking of some other method? Do tell…
By ‘polytheistic’ I am referring to how America’s population has many different religions that often worship utterly different Gods.
I’ll start by doing my best to ensure he is not re-selected to office. Raising the alarm over his flawed statesmanship in thread is certainly a beginning. A quote of Frank Sinatra’s regarding Nancy Reagan is brought to mind;
“Dumb … dumb and dangerous.”
in THIS thread…
*But now we got weapons of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to, then fire them we must
One push of the button and a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions when God’s on your side.
- Bob Dylan *
The SIMPLE answer is, “NO!” George Bush is not a sinister fundamentalist who’s trying to bring about Armageddon.
The SIMPLE answer is that anyone who believes this is a paranoid fruitcake.
But you know what? I won’t even bother trying to refute the notion. Because it’s so much FUN to watch left-wingers wetting their pants in fear of what Bush is going to do. Just like it was loads of fun watching them whimper and sob about how Ronald Reagan was going to blow up the world (pssst… the world is still here!).
Didn’t Reagan publicly state that he believed in the rapture? That, in the event of a Soviet attack, all true born-agains would be lifted up by angels? If so, it would make me think that his advisers and Gorbachev did more to prevent such an occurrence than he did.
In my humble opinion…
Someone’s skipping their meds again.
-Rav