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.Striving for peace and security in the Middle East is a noble goal, but telling people about your divine inspiration to invade another country isn't exactly a prime example of the ideological 'fresh air' that is needed to help the region's moderates take control. Especially, you know, when much of the fundamentalist terrorism arises from their belief that God has given them a heavenly mandate to invade and conquer other countries.
In Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, a major three-part series on BBC TWO (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."
Oh, but it doesn't end there. Karen Hughes is now the Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, and she has recently embarked on a 'listening tour' of the Muslim world, in which she's trying to improve America's image by recounting trite anecdotes about the wonders of American freedom.
Triteness, of course, doesn't equal falseness or even insincerity. But man, I don't know how many people are going to be won over by this tale told to a gathering of Turkish feminists:
"I am a mom, and I love kids. I love all kids. And I understand that is something that I have in common with the Turkish people."
Then there was the infamous incident in Cairo where she informed a group of Egyptian journalists that "'Under God' is in the US Constitution" which is not only wrong but a fairly seirous slander against the character of the US government.
Clearly, Hughes knows absolutely nothing about either Arab/Muslim culture, and she appears equally ignorant of how to make American culture appealing. Fred Kaplan of Slate remarked that "Let's say some Muslim leader wanted to improve Americans' image of Islam. It's doubtful that he would send as his emissary a woman in a black chador who had spent no time in the United States, possessed no knowledge of our history or movies or pop music, and spoke no English beyond a heavily accented, 'Good morning.'"
I have my doubts about this whole scheme. It seems that if the Middle East and the Muslim world is ever going to look on the U.S. with favor, both parties are going to have to change signigicantly. It'll take more than cheesy propoganda to achieve that.
7 comments:
I actually like the tone of what the administration is attempting, as far as opening a dialogue but once again the ineptness of the execution is staggering if oh so consistent.This is the anti-intellectual government and anyone who has spent much time in Texas will recognize it as a regional cultural trait.Everything they do is done without knowledge of historical reference or awareness of world perceptions.
Loyal, this is scary: I found myself agreeing with you.
In part. :)
It probably was a poor decision to place Karen Hughes in that position. There's no way she's qualified, except for being a trusted friend of Bush. She knows nothing about Muslim culture.
OK, back to the disagreements...
I highly doubt the BBC story, and (albeit predictably) the White House is denying it. The BBC has no credibility to me, considering it's horrendous coverage of Iraq and it's employee turnover to Al-Jazeera.
Hughes was wrong about "under God" being in the Constitution. However, the Founders recognized that the only intellectually defensible source of "inalienable rights" was a God. Obviously, since many signers were deists, they disagreed on the nature and participation of that God, but nobody denied His necessity.
Are there any jobs that Bush doesn't appoint one of his friends to? It's one thing to pick close aquaintences for advisors, but once again Bush falters.
This administration has the worst PR I have ever seen.
Was there a personal connection between Bush and John Roberts? (honest inquiry)
(ahh, I see you've employed the word verification...did you start getting those annoying spam comments, too?)
The above thing was an error on my part, not spam.
Was there a personal connection between Bush and John Roberts?
Not that I know of.
Personal connections take on many forms when talking about the networking structures of elites. Could be golf clubs, kids schools,foundations, Boards, etc The ruling class is not that large and very inter-connected.That kind of research takes the kind of time I don't have today.
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