US no longer a Nation, but a Religion: George Monbiot

[Nancy Waterman]

&category=Opinion

Few people believe that the resistance in that country is being coordinated by Saddam Hussein and his noxious family, or that it will come to an end when those people are killed. But the few appear to include the military and civilian command of the United States armed forces. For the hundredth time since the US invaded Iraq, the predictions made by those with access to intelligence have proved less reliable than the predictions made by those without. And, for the hundredth time, the inaccuracy of the official forecasts has been blamed on “intelligence failures”.

The explanation is wearing a little thin. Are we really expected to believe that the members of the US security services are the only people who cannot see that many Iraqis wish to rid themselves of the US Army as fervently as they wished to rid themselves of Saddam Hussein? What is lacking in the Pentagon and the White House is not intelligence (or not, at any rate, of the kind we are considering here), but receptivity. Theirs is not a failure of information, but a failure of ideology

<snip>

So those who question George Bush’s foreign policy are no longer merely critics; they are blasphemers, or “anti-Americans”. Those foreign states which seek to change this policy are wasting their time: You can negotiate with politicians; you cannot negotiate with priests. The US has a divine mission, as Bush suggested in January: “to defend ... the hopes of all mankind”, and woe betide those who hope for something other than the American way of life.

The dangers of national divinity scarcely require explanation. Japan went to war in the1930 s convinced, like George Bush, that it possessed a heaven-sent mission to “liberate” Asia and extend the realm of its divine imperium. It would, the fascist theoretician Kita Ikki predicted: “light the darkness of the entire world”. Those who seek to drag heaven down to earth are destined only to engineer a hell.

[Cha]

1. And the bushwa haven't learned anything from History.

It's as if the whole junta is missing a history learning gene!

Very interesting article.

[tkulesa]

2. This is DANGEROUS

Think about how missionaries are viewed in most parts of the world. Even here in the US (NYC specifically) missionaries are like carriers of a painful social disease. This article is announcing that all US soldiers are missionaries and should be viewed as such. This is only going to make people even more hostile to our military presence.

And, given that this is the middle east, it can't help but bring up images of a new Crusade with King George as a new Bloody Pope.

Unfortunately, I don't really disagree with this article. Their perceptions are valid.

[ixion]

3. this article is both accurate and disturbing...

These neocon zealots are just out of control.

[shirlden]

4. Standing ovation for George Monbiot

Loved his closing line....Those who seek to drag heaven down to earth are destined only to engineer a hell.

Reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, from the late, great, philosopher, Miz Pearl Bailey, "Some people are so heavenly minded, that they ain't no earthly good."

:evilgrin: