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God Told Me To Strike

By Chris Floyd

The Moscow Times
June 30, 2003

So now we know. After all the mountains of commentary and speculation,
all the earnest debates over motives and goals, all the detailed
analyses of global strategy and political ideology, it all comes to down
to this: George W. Bush waged war on Iraq because, in his own words, God
"instructed me to strike at Saddam."

This gospel was revealed, appropriately enough, in the Holy Land this
week, through an unusual partnership between the fractious children of
Abraham. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz was given transcripts of a
negotiating session between Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and
faction leaders from Hamas and other militant groups. Abbas, who was
trying to persuade the groups to call a cease-fire in their uprising
against Israeli forces, described for them his recent summit with Ariel
Sharon and Bush.

During the tense talks at the summit, Bush sought to underscore the kind
of authority he could bring to efforts at achieving peace in the Middle
East. While thundering that there could be "no deals with terror
groups," Bush sought to assure the rattled Palestinians that he also had
the ability to wring concessions from Sharon. And what was the source of
this wonder-working power? It was NOT, as you might think, the ungodly
size of the U.S. military or the gargantuan amount of money and arms the
United States pours into Israel year after year.

No, Bush said he derived his moral heft from the Almighty Himself.
What's more, the Lord had proven his devotion to the Crawford Crusader
by crowning his military efforts with success. In fact, he told Abbas,
God was holding the door open for Middle East peace right now -- but
they would have to move fast, because soon the Creator and Sustainer of
the Universe would have to give His attention to something far more
important: the election of His little sunbeam, Georgie, in 2004.

Here are Bush's exact words, quoted by Haaretz: "God told me to strike
at al-Qaida and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at
Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the
Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will
come and I will have to focus on them."

You can't put it plainer than that. The whole chaotic rigmarole of
Security Council votes and UN inspections and congressional approval and
Colin Powell's whizbang Powerpoint displays of "proof" and Bush's own
tearful prayers for "peace" -- it was all a SHAM, a meaningless
exercise.

NO votes, NO inspections, NO proof or lack of proof -- in fact, NO
earthly reason whatsoever -- could have stopped Bush's AGGRESSIVE war on
Iraq. It was GOD'S unalterable WILL: the Lord of Hosts gave a DIRECT
ORDER for George W. Bush to "strike at Saddam."

And strike he did, with an AWESOME FURY that rained death and
destruction on the mustachioed whore of Babylon, with a FIRESTORM OF
GODLY WRATH that consumed the enemy armies like so much chaff put to the
flame -- and with an arsenal of cruise missiles, cluster bombs, dive
bombers and assault helicopters that killed up to 10,000 INNOCENT
civilians: blasted to PIECES in their BEDS, shot down in their fields
and streets, crushed beneath the walls of their own houses, boiled alive
in factories, ditches and cars, gutted, mutilated, beheaded, murdered,
women, children, elders, some praying, some wailing, some cursing, some
mute with fear as metal death ripped their lives away and left rotting
hulks behind.

This was the WORK of the Lord and His faithful servant, whom He hath
raised high up to have dominion over men. And this is the mindset -- or
rather, the PRIMITIVE fever-dream -- that is now directing the actions
of the greatest military power in the history of the world. There can be
no doubt that Bush BELIEVES LITERALLY in the DIVINE CHARCATER
of his MISSION.

He honestly and sincerely believes that whatever "decision" forms in his
brain -- out of the flux and flow of his own emotional impulses and
biochemical reactions, the flattery and cajolements of his sinister
advisers, the random scraps of fact, myth and fabrication that dribble
into his proudly UNdeveloped and incurious consciousness -- has been
PLANTED there, whole and perfected, by GOD ALIGHTY.

And that's why Bush acts with such serenity and RUTHLESSNESS. Nothing he
does can be challenged on moral grounds, however UNethical or EVIL it
might appear, because ALL of his ACTIONS are DIRECTED by GOD. He can
TWIST the truth, OPPRESS the poor, exalt the rich, DESPOIL the Earth,
IGNORE the law -- and MURDER CHILDREN -- withOUT the slightest
compunction, the briefest moment of doubt or self-reflection, because he
believes -- he TRULY BELIEVES -- that God squats in his brainpan and
tells him what to do.

And just as God countenanced deception on the part of Abraham, just as
God forgave David for the murders he ordered, just as God blessed the
armies of Saul as they obliterated the Amalekites, man, woman and child,
so will He overlook any CRIME COMMITTED by Bush and his minions as they
carry out His will. That's why Bush can always "do whatever it takes" to
achieve his goals. And by his own words to Abbas, we see that he places
his election in 2004 above all other concerns, even the endless
bloodshed in the Middle East.

So what NEW CRIMES will the Lord have to countenance to keep His
appointed servant in power?