White Phosphorus, Fallujah and Jesus Christ
So, the Dear Leader has finally admitted, to Michael Parkinson of all people, what many of us had already suspected. The Christian Deity spearheaded the liberation of Iraq! His wrath brought down the Savage Leader, and now the Kingdom of God will be extended to the land where the Arabs live.
The Thinker-President is, as we know, only too keen, mainly for electoral reasons but also because he's a total cretin, to proclaim his righteousness at every turn. God guides him, God protects him from evil-doers, he converses with the Almighty, etc, etc. Crucially, Bush is associated with a certain strand of Christianity - namely, hard-right born-again Evangelical Christianity. Some on the far left in America, groups like the Maoist RCP, even claim he is a 'Christian Fascist'. I'm not sure about this. Certainly there are fascistic elements to the Bush doctrine (Imperial expansion, the merging of the State and the corporations), but above all, Fascism relies an autonomous mass base. Say what you like about Billy Graham, but he's hardly likely to lead a paramilitary organization in terrorizing the American working class.
Blair has been, up to know, more reticent about proclaiming his Godliness. Alistair Campbell, in folklore at least, summed it up by saying 'we don't "do" God'.
Christian Socialism did, of course, play a large part in the development of the British Labour Party. One of Keir Hardie's big problems with Marx was his perceived hostility towards religion. Hardie himself was quite a religious man. Tony Benn is also famed for his passionate Christian beliefs, as well as his staunch democratic socialism. Even the Dear Leader has called himself a 'Christian Socialist'. Now, I don't really want to get into the whole 'religion and Marxism' debate. Simply to point out that just because religion doesn't get as big an airing in British politics, it's always there, underneath the surface.
Until, it seems, now. Let's get to the crux of the matter. Here's the Dear Leader on the American offensive against Fallujah in 2004:
"They (the insurgents) are fighting democracy, they are fighting to stop democratic elections supervised by the U.N. and due to take place in January,"
And here's a photo, posted without comment, of the effects of that assault.
Here's a photo of another person killed in that particular War Crime.
Now, I'm not a Theologian. I don't wish to ruminate on the implications of killing babies and melting the skin of innocents in the interests of Greed and Power. Presumably Bush and Blair know the Gospels, and there must be some quote in there which justifies such actions. And if, when the Dear Leader transcends his mortal shell, God does indeed pardon him, we, as the inheritors of the Earth, will merely have to repeat Bakunin's old saying:
"If God did Exist, it would be necessary to Abolish him."
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