Sunday, June 19, 2005

AMERICA HATING 101

Far left historian Howard Zinn gives a short course on American history:
Invoking God has been a habit for American presidents throughout the nation’s history, but George W. Bush has made a specialty of it. For an article in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, the reporter talked with Palestinian leaders who had met with Bush. One of them reported that Bush told him, “God told me to strike at al Qaeda. 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.” It’s hard to know if the quote is authentic, especially because it is so literate. But it certainly is consistent with Bush’s oft-expressed claims. A more credible story comes from a Bush supporter, Richard Lamb, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, who says that during the election campaign Bush told him, “I believe God wants me to be president. But if that doesn’t happen, that’s okay.”

Divine ordination is a very dangerous idea, especially when combined with military power (the United States has 10,000 nuclear weapons, with military bases in a hundred different countries and warships on every sea). With God’s approval, you need no human standard of morality. Anyone today who claims the support of God might be embarrassed to recall that the Nazi storm troopers had inscribed on their belts, “Gott mit uns” (“God with us”).
Somehow I knew Nazis were going to come up in there somewhere.

Update: Those arriving via Tim Blair will want to read John Quiggin's post on plastic turkeys and DDT. I find fault with Quiggin's fact checking here.

1 Comments:

Anonymous The_Real_JeffS said...

I saw a video captured after a terrorist ambush in Iraq (it was on the INTERNET). The ambush went south in a hurry, and the terrorists pretty much got their butts whipped but good.

However, before the ambush went south, the sound track from the video was very clear on one point -- the terrorists were shouting "ALLAH AKBAR!" and "ALLAH!"

In English, "God is most great!" and "God!"

By Zinn's logic, the terrorists (since they invoke God) are on the same level as George Bush. I wonder if he sees that, through the blindness caused by his hate?

I keep on seeing new lows of moral equivalency from the left. I wish they would stop digging the hole they are in.

3:26 AM  

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