George W. Bush Doing God's Will in Iraq?
After spending two hours last Friday with President Bush in the Roosevelt Room, David Brooks comes back with a slight case of Hero Worship and this New York Times op-ed....
Far from being beleaguered, Bush was assertive and good-humored. While some in his administration may be looking for exit strategies, he is unshakablycommitted to stabilizing Iraq. If Gen. David Petraeus comes back and says he needs more troops and more time, Bush will scrounge up the troops. If General Petraeus says he can get by with fewer, Bush will support that, too.It's quite scary when our President's theory or plan for success is based on the conviction that HIS WISHES embody God's Will.
Bush said he will get General Petraeus's views unfiltered by the Pentagon establishment. He feels no need to compromise to head off opposition from Capitol Hill and is confident that he can rebuild popular support. "I have the tools," he said.
I left the 110-minute session thinking that far from being worn down by the past few years, Bush seems empowered. His self-confidence is the most remarkable feature of his presidency.
...........
Rather, his self-confidence survives because it flows from two sources. The first is his unconquerable faith in the rightness of his Big Idea. Bush is convinced that history is moving in the direction of democracy, or as he said Friday: "It's more of a theological perspective. 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."
Pardon me but I just can't wrap my mind around the idea that the neoconservatism espoused by Bush and fellow ideologues is God's Will incarnate. I don't know about you - but the Gospel I read doesn't demand that we forcibly spread Democracy throughout the World.
We can only hope and pray that one day President Bush will realize that true freedom is found in faith through Christ alone and not in a particular political system....
Labels: George Bush
posted by Big Daddy Weave at 4:54 PM
5 Comments:
One thing that would be nice if we kept the government and the church separate is, you wouldn't be worrying so much about the question if it is God's will that the U.S. import democracy to Iraq. God will accomplish his will, even by the U.S. fighting in Iraq, just as he did through Cyrus from Persia. That will might not be for the establishment of democracy, but it would be to accomplish something he wills to accomplish. God puts "rulers" where they are and works through them. (Yes, I said the same thing when Clinton was President.) So, the answer to your question is "yes", but not necessarily for the reasons the President thinks. Godspeed.
7:37 PM
Isn't it just a little bit disconcerting that the man trusted to bring liberal democratic values to the heart of the Muslim world is a deluded Christianist?
7:45 PM
Spreading democracy is not a bad thing--and one of the worst legacies of the Bush admin. will be that people associate spreading democracy with starting wars. Democracy makes governments accountable to the people--that's good. When democracies spread, all else being equal, there are fewer wars because democracies seldom go to war with each other.
But the spread of democracy is, as you say, not the gospel. Nor can you spread democracy by military invasions--because military coercion is itself a very undemocratic process.
You spread democracy by showing people its benefits (marketplace of ideas), by supporting (NOT with arms!) democratic reform groups within nations, restricting trade to countries with human rights abuses, sending election monitors to nations trying to have their first elections, etc. It's slow, and usually not very dramatic or "sexy." But it doesn't cost billions of lives or billions of dollars and it doesn't create hatred for the idea of democracy or increase terrorism--all of which the neo-con pipedream has done.
5:56 AM
Good thoughts keep it up.
3:04 PM
big daddy weave: Why so mild, fella? Why not stand up and tell the truth? Here is a sample ... just an example: http://healtheland.wordpress.com/2007/07/23/did-god-tell-george-bush-to-invade-iraq/ And http://soldierservant.wordpress.com has a bunch of forthtelling on Bush. Look, Bush is not a Christian, OK? The fellow is a member of the Skulls and Bones occult group. He claims that YHVH and the fake Muslim Allah moon god are one and the same. And this whole thing about spreading democracy: where does the Bible tell us to do that? Even if that was the case ... why does Bush start wars to promote democracy in Iraq while supporting dictatorships and repressive regimes in Pakistan, China, Russia, and lots of other places? Bush's Iraq War is all about confusion, murder, chaos, greed, power, and the exploitation of the poor, and his domestic agenda is the same, especially when you consider his determined attempts to tear down the wall of separation between church and state. Wherever the state and church mixes, A) true worship dies and B) religious persecution of true Christians result. You know who sent Jesus Christ to the cross? A conspiracy between the Roman government and several corrupt Sadduccee religious leaders (Caiaphas, etc.), both of whom opposed true religion and wanted to maintain the state's power to institutionalize false religion. So, you had two groups that opposed the resurrection (the pagan Romans and the worldly power and money hungry Sadducees) sending the preacher of the resurrection to the grave. Bush's agenda is not God's agenda, it is Satan's agenda. And what does Bush, who speaks about his "faith" in the most general terms possible, truly believe, anyway? Seems to be that Bush is a modern day Sadducee. (Then again, since he is a member of the occult group Skulls and Bones and is rumored to have ties to the Masons, he may be a modern day Roman! That Roman thing may fit him quite well since he has elevated two hard right Roman Catholics that oppose doing justice to the poor to the Supreme Court! Oh, but those same 5 Roman Catholics on the Supreme Court that hate doing justice for the poor LOVE allowing state tax dollars to fund these wealthy churches, don't they?) We all know which side Bush is on, so why aren't more people willing to come out and say it?
12:45 PM
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