"God, is that you?"

Millions of people endorse Bush (not only in America, but around the world) because they believe he is a real Christian, and thus an instrument of God's will. In particular, the Evangelical Revelations-focussed Christians are happy to have someone like that (an Evangelical) doing God's work across the planet. The imbedded philosophy of a Born Again Christian goes something like this: If God doesn't bring about the apocalpse, then, by God, we'll make it happen. We'll go to the Middle East, stir up trouble and kill them in their own neighborhoods. It's all part of God's Plan. And we will have the victory because we're His Chosen People. Makes sense.

Actually, it doesn't make a lot of sense. I don't sniff much in the way of a devine purpose behind all this. Bush's tactics have created a far more unstable world than before he was President. He's weakened his country, and every day more and more nergy and resources are divided and drained away from the Middle Class and the poor, and pumped into the pockets of a very select number of individuals.
And I don't smell anything good where a powerful country with thousands of WMD attacks a another country, ostensibly just because it (pretended, as it turned out) to possess a handful of WMD. Iraq maintained this posture to ward off an attack because without WMD it was extremely vulnerable to attack.
Now, having been attacked, guess who learned valuable lessons? Iraq's neighbor, Iran. I don't believe they are pursuing WMD but you could hardly fault them for doing so. Every country has a right to defend itself from outside attack. That doesn't include the right to attack.

Furthermore, al Qaeda is now operating in Iraq (which was not the case before 9/11). ...The highly classified operation involving the U.S. intelligence community and the U.S. military was carried out against suspected al Qaeda operatives south of Baghdad, CNN has learned from a well-placed U.S. military official.
Bush uses this as evidence to support the war in Iraq. He is stimulating more and more fervor, generating more terrorism in the name of 'the war on terrorism'. Interesting.
The good news is more than 10 attacks (three on US soil) have been foiled since 9/11. The last was a plot to bomb targets in Paris.
The bad news is, eventually, they'll slip through.

I'm pretty sure all the nonsense about the war on terror is just spin anyway. It's just a smokescreen for the US getting access to Middle East oil, and making sure the area is stable and secure. They're failing in that mission too. None are more surprised than the US military that the insurgency has been as resilient and tough an adversary as its been, and it continues to innovate and recruit. The US army is not gaining ground, it's losing ground. And Iraqi oil is not flowing out of the Gulf any faster than a few years ago.

You've also got to wonder (when you look at the content of Bush's policies over the years)whether Bush spells God like this: M-O-N-E-Y.

And that's not all. By emphasising 'America's God', you inflame the other one, in the Middle East. Yes, it shouldn't work that way. There ought to be one God for all, but everyone wants it to be theirs. We're not a civilisation that's famous for sharing, and that alone is our undoing.
In sport, as it is in war, it's childish for one participant (or group) to pray for support (victory) before a soccer match, or tennis match. Why do we start a war and make it God's business?
Should God listen to one person and not another? Should God make subjective judgements? God is not Santa Claus - we don't get gifts based on good behaviour. The victory will go to the candidate who is strategically stronger and better, who is dedicated to a Higher Reality - which ios a grand way of saying, who is of sound mind and ability (or what we could also call a Higher Technology, or Higher Philosophy) in terms of themselves, in terms of their opponent and in terms of having an intimate knowledge of the context that both will face. Knowing the playing field. Knowing the arena. In layman's terms, the guy who worked the hardest and has the deeper desire will prevail.

Faith only becomes relevant as it reflects on the faithful person. If you believe that God is a God of love, chances are, you will be a more loving person. You'll act accordingly. If you believe God is primarily about justice, then you will get excited at every chance to offer retribution and revenge.
What you believe, as a believer in God, you also believe in yourself, so that God can work through you (and you can do effectively do what God's given you the potential to achieve). In this sense, God is really another way of saying Nature Operating Through Our Being.

I don't know what Bush believes, but I suspect he is trying very hard to make up for the first portion of his life, which was not very successful. He is trying to compensate for this failure by extending himself in these days and years, by attempting to be a great and powerful President. He's trying to create a legacy, for himself personally, and for his country. He has not lived a legacy, so he has no idea how to lead one, or leave a legacy to his countrymen, or to others affected all over the world. People like you and me. This is why he is an important subject. When things unravel, and they will, we ought not to ask this futile question: How did it happen, or worse, Why did it happnen? We are part of why things happen in the world. At some level or other, we consent to the world the way it is, the same way we have approved our being wherever we are.

We are after all part of God, in the same way that a brick is part of a building. But while the brick is not a building, it can sort of 'feel like' what the rest of the structure is 'doing'. What you believe, as a believer in God, is vital to how that brick helps the building stand upright. If the brick thinks its a window, and gets all its friends to be the same, the building will be in serious trouble. What we believe, you see, changes our reality, and reality itself.
But I don't need to explain it to you, you already know it implicitly, or should. It's an ocean of consciousness that we all create, and can all reach, through prayer, or meditation but especially through original action and firsthand experience.

I believe Bush's belief system is very simple. And very young. He recently overcame his alcholism and 'found God'. He thinks this rescue has provided him with front row access to God. No, that's an obese person believing they are slim after their first exercise session. It's a long road, but obviously the first step is a major paradigm shift. But it's a mistake, to make that shift and then to claim full enlightenment. It's a process. It requires patience and humility It works forwards and backwards; it's also reversible. Bush is not going forwards with his beliefs, I am sad to say. Pride is a bitch.

I also wouldn't support a leader who surrounds himself with cronies and yes-men. I don't know about you, but a truly faithful, spiritual person (as opposed to a well intentioned delusional person) has one vital, and easily recognizable quality. It's a dedication to the truth. It's obvious that the war in Iraq was initiated on foundations of lies and deceit.

Mr Bush, I have a message from God. Hang on, just writing it down. Okay, here it is, open your ears now:

I get to decide who is good, and who is evil (for the record, no one is, because we're all in this together)
Thus, Love your enemies.
and Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will inherit this Earth.
And moreover: Stop namecalling. You do it to me and to yourselves. It's because you call me one thing and my people elsewhere call me something else that you're fighting.
You're going to end everything I've given you for that, unless you change your ways.
Listen, and begin to see the bigger things you're about to face.
You will need everything I've given you, and none of those things you give yourselves.
Now open your eyes.
.

Do you think he heard that?

Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan: BBC 2 hours, 40 minutes ago

LONDON (AFP) - US
President George W. Bush allegedly said God told him to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, a new BBC documentary will reveal, according to details.

Bush made the claim when he met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then foreign minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003, the ministers told the documentary series to be broadcast in Britain later this month.

The US leader also told them he had been ordered by God to create a Palestinian state, the ministers said.

Shaath, now the Palestinian information minister, said: " President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God.

'God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan'.'

"And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq...' And I did.