Religious Right and the Iraq War I
Did Bush say that God told him to invade Iraq? Having seen this on a BBC news item and actually used this to criticise GB I was surprised to read that there are those who doubt the veracity of this report. I decided, before going on with my rant, that further investigation was required.
Apparently a palestinian aide made this statement, which was denied by the Bush administration. When confronted, the aide stuck to his story but admitted the comments were not intended “literally”.
As the source for this statement is hardly unbiased, one may have to, reluctantly, let GB of the hook in this case. Nonetheless, there does seem to be plenty of evidence that GB has used God-talk in relation to the Iraq invasion (e.g. when asking God to bless American and British troops–note the rhetorical references to Allied forces seeking to draw legitamacy from the war against nazism).
Therein lies the problem. Radical Muslims hardly need any incentive to portray the Iraq war as a Christian crusade against Islam, and GB goes and hands evidence to support this case, not withstanding the fact that many Christian leaders, both in the UK and elsewhere denounced the war as illegitimate.
Note: Tony Blair has often been accused of making similar kind of statements. In fact, his claim was that he entered the war based on his best judgement, and would be held accountable by a higher power. Therefore, he was not using God-talk to justify his (mistaken) decision, but recognising that there was a higher authority than himself.
Tags: George Bush, Iraq war, Tony Blair
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