Oh, man:
In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France's President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.
In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:
"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."
Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:
" This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins".
snip:"The story of the conversation emerged only because the Elyse Palace, baffled by Bush's words, sought advice from Thomas Romer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne. Four years later, Romer gave an account in the September 2007 issue of the university's review, Allez savoir. The article apparently went unnoticed, although it was referred to in a French newspaper.
The story has now been confirmed by Chirac himself in a new book, published in France in March, by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush's invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and "wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs"."
These remarks seem similar to what Bush once said to Palestinian ministers.
What a terrifying Presidency.
2 comments:
And how is Obama's presidency any less terrifying?
The intent may be a bit different (and even that is somewhat debatable), but the outcome is indistinguishable. I don't think our victims will be any more forgiving if we tell them that we're illegally and senselessly bombing them for secular reasons rather than cryptic religious reasons.
In fact, I might even say that Obama's presidency is *more* terrifying. By about 2005, people began to realize that the emperor had no clothes. Now everyone is praising the emperor again. Those who actually criticize him often complain that's he's not enough of a warmonger.
It's madness. All part of a day's work for the state.
Obama will probably not be that much better foreign policy wise, but it is heartening to at least think he isn't a puppet of his Vice President because all they have to do is put a Biblical quotation on his briefing to convince him.
Post a Comment