* Unforgettable--George W. Bush Claims His God Told Him to Invade Iraq

THE FAITH-BASED PRESIDENCY

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

The Washington Times
Inside Politics

By Greg Pierce
October 23, 2006

Fear of God (excerpt)

"Gerhard Schroeder, the former German chancellor, has written in a new book that George W. Bush's frequent references to God in their meetings before the Iraq war had made him wary of Mr. Bush's political decisions. Mr. Schroeder also suggested that America's Christian conservatives are not much different than Islamists who impose their beliefs on entire nations.

"Mr. Schroeder wrote in an advance excerpt of his memoirs that Germany had stood by its vow of "unlimited solidarity" after the September 11 attacks. But Germany stayed out of Iraq, causing a breach in U.S.-Germany ties.

"He wrote in "Decisions: My Life in Politics," excerpted yesterday in Der Spiegel magazine, that he was alarmed by Mr. Bush's talk of God, which made him fear religion influenced decisions.

"What worried me, despite a relaxed atmosphere to our talks, and to a certain degree what made me skeptical was how much it came through that this president saw himself as 'God-fearing' and saw that as the highest authority," Mr. Schroeder wrote.

"Mr. Schroeder, a Social Democrat who left politics after his party lost a 2005 election to end his seven years in power, said he had no qualms with Mr. Bush's Christian faith, but could not escape a fear that religion was a driving force behind his decisions.

"The former chancellor also took aim at America's Christian conservatives, Reuters news agency reports.

"Quite rightly, we criticize that in most Islamic states the role of religion in society and the secular character of the legal system are not clearly separated," he said. "But we haven't taken note as readily of the U.S. Christian fundamentalists and their interpretation of the Bible that show similar tendencies."
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The New Yorker FACT
ANNALS OF NATIONAL SECURITY
UP IN THE AIR
Where is the Iraq war headed next?
December 12, 2005

by Seymour M. Hersh

"The President is more determined than ever to stay the course," the former defense official said. "He doesn't feel any pain. Bush is a believer in the adage 'People may suffer and die, but the Church advances.' " He said that the President had become more detached, leaving more issues to Karl Rove and Vice-President Cheney. "They keep him in the gray world of religious idealism, where he wants to be anyway," the former defense official said."
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New Zealand Herald
Bush: God told me to invade Iraq
August 10, 2005

By Rupert Cornwell, "In the programme, Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath says Mr Bush told him and Mahmoud Abbas, former Prime Minister and now Palestinian President, that "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.'"And Bush is quoted as telling the two men, "I feel God's words coming to me: 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East'. And by God, I'm gonna do it."
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BBC Press Office
Press Release
God told me to invade Iraq, Bush tells Palestinian ministers
June 10, 2005

"President George W Bush told Palestinian ministers that God had told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq - and create a Palestinian State, a new BBC series reveals. "In Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, a major three-part series on BBCTWO (at 9.00pm on Monday 10, Monday 17 and Monday 24 October), Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister, and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, describe their first meeting with President Bush in June 2003.

"Nabil Shaath says: "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. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'" Abu Mazen was at the same meeting and recounts how President Bush told him:"I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state."
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NYTimes.com -- Magazine
Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush
October 17, 2004

by Ron Suskind

"Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a treasury official for the first President Bush, told me recently that ''if Bush wins,there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3.'' The nature of that conflict, as Bartlett sees it? Essentially, the same as the one raging across much of the world: a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion.'

"'Just in the past few months,'' Bartlett said, ''I think a light has gone off for people who've spent time up close to Bush: that this instinct he's always talking about is this sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do.'' Bartlett, a 53-year-old columnist and self-described libertarian Republican who has lately been a champion for traditional Republicans concerned about Bush's governance, went on to say:''This is why George W. Bush is so clear-eyed about Al Qaeda and the Islamic fundamentalist enemy. He believes you have to kill them all. They can't be persuaded, that they're extremists, driven by a dark vision. He understands them, because he's just like them. . . .'

"'This is why he dispenses with people who confront him with inconvenient facts,'' Bartlett went on to say. ''He truly believes he's on a mission from God. Absolute faith like that overwhelms a need for analysis. The whole thing about faith is to believe things for which there is no empirical evidence.'' Bartlett paused, then said, ''But you can't run the world on faith.''. . .

"The nation's founders, smarting still from the punitive pieties of Europe's state religions, were adamant about erecting a wall between organized religion and political authority. But suddenly, that seems like along time ago. George W. Bush -- both captive and creator of this moment --has steadily, inexorably, changed the office itself. He has created the faith-based presidency." (This article is worth a full read.)

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Further articles:
HAARETZ.com
UKThe Independent