Oh, please have mercy, martin. Your petty diversions are simply inflicting too much mental anguish on my daily life!
i have heard liberals make this claim before, that bush claims god told him to invade. but it is made up, plain and simple. often i find that when i actually listen to what bush says it is different than how he is potrayed by his political opponents. to be fair, i think we should critique what bush actually says, not what we wished he said. thats is why this thread is a dishonest cheap shot.
this is beside the point sort of, because bush isnt claiming god told him to invade. but yes, i care more about the decision than the motivation. for example, if bush started legalizing drugs and claimed god told him to, i would just be glad the policy was was improving. i wouldnt care why. if the iraq invasion was a personal vendetta, and not justified in other ways i would oppose it, you dont understand what i am saying. i am saying if the decision is correct, i really dont care what the decisionmaker thought his motivation was. but this is not relevant to this discussion, because bush is not actually claiming god told him to invade. to further explain how you do not understand: if bush went after osama because god told him to, wouldnt you still want him to go after osama, even if you dont believe in god? this time i was talking to rex.
That is not what you said. Now you're saying that the motivation doesn't matter so long as you agree with the end result. That is not what you originally said. Therefore, by your own definition, you are a liar. But what you fail to understand is that the motivation goes a long way toward justification. 'Correct' by your standards does not account for all the collateral damage and other adverse consequences. Perhaps. But that same thought pattern simply cannot be applied to the thousands of other decisions that he is supposed to make.
Bush told Mahmoud Abbas that God told him to invade Iraq, according to Haaretz. Furthermore, your responses to this thread betray a certain lack of cognition on your part. It's not about whether George Bush actually said those exact words or not... it's about the role of faith in propagating a certain course of political action. And you can't seriously deny that George's faith has a lot to do with his political decisionmaking and stubbornness (you might call that "resolve"). Here are some Bush quotes where he leaves no doubt that he sees his presidency and invasion as part of God's will: To a friend while governor of Texas: "I believe God wants me to run for president." To a national TV audience shortly after 9/11: "The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them." To the New York Times while defending his Mideast Policy: "Events aren't moved by blind change and chance, but by the hand of a just and faithful God.'' To a Republican fundraiser while defending his Iraq decision: "I believe that America is called to lead the cause of freedom in a new century. I believe that millions in the Middle East plead in silence for their liberty. I believe that given the chance, they will embrace the most honorable form of government ever devised by man. I believe all these things because freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world." Cheap shot? Hardly.
Contained Chaos, you've caught martin in two lies. He changed his story when he found his original position untenable (lie #1 by his own definition), but now won't admit its untenability (lie #2). Gee, martin, it's so easy to play your cheap little game.
