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from Japan Today March 4, 2003 http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=comment&id=351 Bush should leave God out of it Ian Williams Following the failed vote in the Turkish parliament over the weekend, the White House Bible Study group should be perusing the Book of Job, with particular reference to the president, not least the verses where the "just, upright man is laughed to scorn," and is "as one mocked of his neighbor." They may even wax prophetical, "He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way." Faced with the impending meltdown of his diplomatic and military plans, George "Job" Bush may do well to check on his sources of inspiration. Maybe he should consider that if pretty much the majority of the people in every country in the world, with the possible exception of Israel, is expressing doubts about his Iraq venture, then maybe the Deity himself is more than a little dubious about Dubya. Maybe he should leave God out of it. Indeed, to reinforce that view of global opposition to war, the pope, whose pretensions to a hotline to heaven have a somewhat longer pedigree than those of the president, is sending an emissary to persuade him to keep those fiery chariots from rolling across the desert. Of course it is not enough to have an apostolic endorsement to see the commander-in-chief. The pope's chosen emissary is an old chum of the president's father, and as every Texan knows, blood is thicker than water - and maybe even oil. Perhaps the president's problem is that he is not getting the calls on the hot line from heaven? Everyone knows that it is difficult to get calls through directly to a chief executive, especially one who, as he keeps telling the United Nations Security Council members, does not really recognize any higher authority. How else do we explain his imperviousness to inconvenient news from Turkey, from Britain and from the rest of Europe? But on the other hand, every call from Ariel Sharon seems to get straight through to the Oval Office and be personally answered. (Memo to the White House: Ariel Sharon's claims to the divine messenger franchise are seriously contested by most Israelis and Jews, let alone the rest of the world's monotheists). On the other hand, one cannot help wondering: Is it possible that the wires are crossed in the White House? That the president is being egged on not by heaven, as he thinks, but by, well, the "other place," whose boss, as any Bible reader in the South will testify, is a tricky customer who never misses a chance to stir up trouble and bring Armageddon forward? On the other hand, it could be the advisors around the president. The Great King of the Medes and Persians had an official (a brave guy, one suspects) whose job was to whisper into the mega-monarchical ear an occasional reminder that he was only mortal, and may well even occasionally be mistaken. The closest equivalent to that official in Dubya's court seems to be Colin Powell, but any whispers he is inputting into the presidential ear are being drowned out by those who encourage the president's apocalyptic visions, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and the rest of the chicken-hawks chirping in churlish chorus. Which brings us back to the land of Hittites, as Turkey is called by those who rely on Biblical exegesis. Until now, the White House has treated the passage of a U.N. resolution as icing on the cake - a throwaway thank-you to Tony Blair, and a welcome opportunity to make the uppity Frogs eat crow. Mesmerized with offers of military equipment, the Turkish generals squeezed the elected government, which Washington also had promised billions of dollars, a free hand in Kurdistan, a boost in their negotiations on Cyprus, U.S. pressure to gain entry to the European Union - and even hinted that they could get a dip in the oil trough at Mosul and Kirkuk. And the parliament still failed to deliver. If the White House has any connections at all to reality, the next few days will almost see a subtle, if announced, shift in diplomacy. The Turkish parliament vote might well have been swung if there had been a second Security Council resolution, so getting one past has suddenly shifted from being an optional accessory to an essential weapon. The U.S. military should be whispering in the White House ear about how a Northern front is worth a week or two's delay compared with a one-front war. That could mean that while the thumbscrews will be getting tightened in the capitals of council members, the draft resolution that was thrown down as "take it or leave it" a week ago, may suddenly become much more negotiable. If there were a real lucid moment, the White House would develop a sudden interest in the Canadian counterproposal that, assuming that Iraq is really hiding things, only delays war by a couple of weeks but offers the prospect of a resolution that will secure a comfortable majority, and mute at least some of the opposition across the world. But many will draw comfort from the possibility that the White House is as irrational in its methodology as in its motivation, and they will probably still alienate a majority in the Council. __________________________ http://www.japantoday.com/ ===== LMNOP http://lmno4p.org "No War for Oil!" __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! 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