Georgie, God, and Grumblings

"Georg" Bush and God:

For the past several weeks, I have been impressed by the level of double speak in our government. It began when I was walking through a book store and saw a strange bestseller being promoted (more realistically, a book being promoted to become a best seller by being given prominent display at the entrance). “God and George W. Bush.”

The cover image shows President Bush looking slightly upward, suggesting God is talking, and George is listening. Would not most of the Christian persuasion find this a bit galling? Mr. Preznit knows the "will of God?" I found that image and the implicit message somewhat offensive, given my interpretation that “God’s Will” is not exactly what Mr. Preznit is doing in Iraq, to the Environment, with regard to the needs of the poor, with regard to the state of education in the U.S., etc.

And more about Gilbert:

Today, the CNN web site has an essay suggesting Pentagon officials are investigating a statement made by a Lieutenant in October, in which the Lt. announced that a major offensive was beginning in Falluja. According to the CNN story, “A senior Pentagon official told CNN that Gilbert's remarks were ‘technically true but misleading.’ It was an attempt to get CNN ‘to report something not true,’ the official said.”

What was not true? Did I miss something, or didn’t we just kill (at the very least) several hundred Iraqis in Falluja in order to chase and fight what ended up being a small band of “insurgents” (most of whom probably fled)?

A sign, sign, everywhere a sign

I have also been taken by the billboards all across America (I drove a few miles during Thanksgiving, hey didn't a bunch of us do that? Did I waive at you? Maybe.) that read “FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.”

Sure it is. Oppression is not free.

Finally, my kids told us on the drive that they had a veteran or a marine or a soldier come to their school during Veteran’s Day. My kids were told that “Soldiers do not join the Army to kill, they join to defend the United States.” I was taken aback by those insights. And given the fact that my children are young, and live in a community, I did not press the matter to seriously in their presence.

But surely the young men and women who join the military must know that they are probably going to end up shooting and killing people. For the brief time that most young men and women are in the Army, they train for it on a daily basis. Don’t they do that still?

Our Nation has been involved in a War (“Conflict?”) for an average of one of every three years we have been a nation. But calling our military’s actions “defensive” seems “misleading” to me. If I am not mistaken, our nation has rarely been “attacked,” thereby requiring defense. I understand Sept. 11th, 2004. But our military was caught completely off guard according to the 9/11 Commission Report. The same goes for Pearl Harbor (although several historians disagree), which was in fact a U.S. Territory at the time. I guess we could say the British attacked us in the Early 1800s, but that was another time.

More grumblings later. And no, I do not think that the right wing or nut wing have God on their side. I don't think God picks sides.