Bush and Iraq: God makes him do it?

David Brooks, a New York Times conservative columnist and supporter of President George W. Bush, had a heart to heart with the President for his July 17 column. Bush says his strength comes from two places:

"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.'"

It sounds as it he doesn't define democracy or freedom the way his own nation does - from the US Constitution to the average individual voter.

The US is far less free or democratic now than it was when he was elected the first time and especially the second.

Is he saying he's just doing what God intends for him to do because God intends for the entire world to be democratic and his is the job to force that upon the world? That he has a theological point of view of being a president rather than a constitutional or democratic point of view?

When he speaks of freedom, I wonder if he understands how many Americans he denies freedom because they don't agree with his political, personal or religious beliefs. Like the freedom to investigate the questionable firings of several US Attorneys whose severance appears to be purely political. And the freedom to have a government with three functioning branches whose job it is to provide check and balances from the abuses he openly commits against the US Constitution.

Interestingly, John F. Kennedy had to prove, over and over, that he would NOT permit his Catholic religious points of view interfere with his leadership and presidential decisions. That he would not be executing the will of the Pope or his church. And he did not. He maintained the separation of church and state, which is the edict of our constitution.

But Bush feels he can use his theological philosophy to make governing decisions, which has cost this nation its very raison d'être. He's so confident we'll agree it's a good thing God is in charge of our nation, in fact, and he's doing the right thing by following what he believes to be God's guidance, he feels free to talk about his believed "divine guidance" to people like David Brooks.

This is the price of allowing any fundamentalist religious group to hijack a political party over the past 20 years, which has also cost the Republican Party its very raison d'être. That takeover by fundamentalist Christians parallels what has happened to nations throughout the world that have been overtaken by Islam fundamentalists.

It is also the cost of the congress passively, gradually allowing a president to take over the rule of all three branches and departments of government, of allowing a president to rule by the politics and psychology of fear instead of leadership, leading to the neglect and debilitation of a system with checks and balances.

While Bush says he will do what the military generals say he should do in Iraq - he has not done what our military leaders have told him to do in the past, why would he start now? Military leaders who disagree with him are released and replaced with someone more aligned with Bush's points of view -- at least when they are appointed. If they change their minds once fully involved with the war? Buh-buh.

If he had listened to them to begin with, we would have completed our honorable mission in Afghanistan and not diverted our military resources to the conundrum that is Iraq.

And if I hear one more person say, "Oh, so the world was better with Saddam Hussein in it?" I will puke. Saddam Hussein could have been removed without trying to take over the whole country for an ideology that will not work in that nation right now because of its historical and present cultural, political and social issues, and escalated the chances of it becoming another fundamentalist Islamic state.

Meanwhile US soldiers remain "boots on the ground," in harm's way, as the Iraqi congress takes its annual vacation throughout the month of August instead of working on a policy or two that will help stop some of the killing. Political solutions are necessary to stop the bloodshed among warring factions in Iraq. If the US leaves Iraq, so will members of Al qaeda because the warring factions are not interested in Al qaeda's agenda and won't need its help fighting the US any longer.

Interestingly, members of the Iraqi congress do not live in Iraq because it's too dangerous. So instead of suffering through the daily bloodshed, bombings and threats their country people suffer, they are flown in when the congress is in session. Amazing that they would take any time off while their country is in a war, but they are just following the example of the US president and vice-president, who vacation at will.

And I assume the US Congress will take its summer vacation as well, though for most it is a working vacation in their home states. And this year they will all be working hard because most of us are furious with the state of the nation and they are responsible for allowing a president to become king over the past six and a half years.

It's a shame that our soldiers fighting, being wounded or dying in the Iraq war cannot take a vacation, they can't even have a proper break between being assigned there. This not only exacerbates the potential for being injured or killed because of battle fatigue, but also of being hit with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). VA Hospitals are understaffed to deal properly with PTSD because of the vast numbers of our military members returning with mental problems from being in that war.

Despite his claims of supporting our troops, he opposes even minor pay raises for them.

After reading so much about Bush's fundamentalist Christian religious beliefs, I say this in all seriousness:

The only way I imagine George W. Bush can live with himself being responsible for creating this lethal, bloody, irresponsible international quagmire, destabilizing in the world from his actions in Iraq, is that he honestly believes our dead soldiers are better off with God. Much as the Muslims killing themselves and others believe.

And that somehow because God is in charge so everything will turn out just fine. Which is why he has a Chancey Gardner lack of emotional investment in his decisions - he's so distanced from his responsiblity for the global bloody calamity that is going on - it is almost as if he doesn't understand his role creating so much of the horror he has unleashed upon the world.

Doesn't the bible say that God helps those who help themselves?

And he knows how much money he and his family will ultimately make from the Iraq oil debacle; and how much money he and Dick Cheney will make from the phenomenal, world record-breaking Halliburton profits.