Citing Faith, Bush Defends War Actions

[tpsbmam]

Source: New York Times

President Bush delivered a rousing defense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday, mixing faith and foreign policy as he told a group of Christian broadcasters that his policies in the region were predicated on the beliefs that freedom was a God-given right and “every human being bears the image of our maker.”

In a 42-minute speech to the National Religious Broadcasters convention, Mr. Bush called upon European allies to step up their efforts in Afghanistan, and conceded that recent security gains in Iraq “are tenuous, they’re reversible and they’re fragile.” Still, he insisted his troop buildup there is succeeding.

“The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency,” Mr. Bush said, to a standing ovation. “It is the right decision at this point in my presidency, and it will forever be the right decision.”

“The effects of a free Iraq and a free Afghanistan will reach beyond the borders of those two countries,” Mr. Bush said. “It will show others what’s possible. And we undertake this work because we believe that every human being bears the image of our maker. That’s why we’re doing this. No one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave.”

Calling freedom a “precious gift,” Mr. Bush said: “The liberty we value is not ours alone. Freedom is not America’s gift to the world; it is God’s gift to all humanity.” His words were punctuated by shouts of “Amen.”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/world/middleeast/12prexyweb.html?ref=world&pagewanted=print

[WillParkinson]

1. Let me be the first to say...

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

Thank you.

[Tyler Durden]

3. Great minds think alike.

Wouldn't the ability to projectile vomit at will be a remarkable opportunity for effective social comment?

[saigon68]

24. Its operation "kill an islamic FOR CHRIST"

[Tyler Durden]

25. Remember the "Kill a Commie For Christ Campaign?"

Was on some comedy bit, by some comedian whose name I forget, performed around 1974.

[saigon68]

40. Remember it ? Hell I was part of it

[coalition_unwilling]

27. AKA "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" -n/t

[Tyler Durden]

2. BLEAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:
:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:
:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:
:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:
:puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke::puke:

[ET Awful]

4. So tell me Mr. Bush, if that's truly how you feel, why haven't you done anything

about US corporations operating what basically equates to slave labor factories in places like the Mariana Islands where the product can be labeled as "Made in the USA"?

[thunder rising]

5. The White American Christian: The Deadliest People on Earth...they just toooo damn dumb

[Lerkfish]

6. “every human being bears the image of our maker.”, except the "brown" ones.

right, little boots? you're responsible for over a milion NEEDLESS deaths in Iraq. Is that how your faith is measured?

[acmavm]

7. Would someone please ask this knuckledragger why if every

human being 'bears the image of HIS maker, he is responsible for the murder of so damn many. Especially the innocents.

What doesn't anyone ever call this guy on his lies and delusions?

MY maker doesn't want anything to do with the guy.

[dmosh42]

8. Just keeps on manipulating the dummies! n/t

[ixion]

9. yeah, because Jesus always liked a good war

:eyes: :puke:

[SpiralHawk]

10. Try some facts for once in your life, Commander AWOL

America has been screwed enough by your perverted 'beliefs"

[Loge23]

11. ...and he has the "freedom" to end our freedom

This is way past the point of embarrassment.

[baldguy]

12. What kind of faith?

[Magleetis]

13. FUGWB

You are Satan.

[bdamomma]

14. we have a very sick psychotic little man here.

he needs his a$$ to be thrown out, he is very sick. Why can't the professionals see that, why can't a few from the Mental Health Community say how dangerous he is. Would you stick your neck out to save your country and your people??????

[Zorra]

31. Yes, he is clearly very seriously mentally ill, and is a danger to society. n/t

[gratuitous]

15. And not a syllable . . .

Not one single syllable in the entire story from an opposing point of view. Apparently Ms. Stolberg doesn't know any Quakers, any Mennonites, or any Church of the Brethren persons who have a decidedly different interpretation. Not a word from, say, Peter Gomes or Tony Campolo. No dissenting viewpoint from our famously even-handed media, which seems to find some nut to quote for a countering point of view even on settled issues.

I wonder why that is? I wonder why Stolberg's editor didn't ask that she talk to someone who disagreed with Bush's blatant hypocrisy? Or if there was a mention of it, why it was cut and the report went to print without a trace?

[rpannier]

16. The effects have already reached across borders

Turkey has crossed the border into Iraq

Iran is now the big dog in the region reaching across borders to increase their influence that was once checked by Iraq

To borrow from Richard Armitage, "Regardless of the motives of the United States in the past one word that was never used to describe us was incompetant and now that is the buzzword."

on his "Freedom" vein

Amazing how he cuts out American freedoms

[Virginia Dare]

17. Who would Jesus torture?

hypocritical CRETINOUS ASSWIPE!....:mad: :mad: :argh: :argh: :grr: :grr: :nuke: :nuke:

[Hissyspit]

18. Citing Faith, Bush Defends War Actions

Source: New York Times

Citing Faith, Bush Defends War Actions

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: March 12, 2008
NASHVILLE — President Bush delivered a rousing defense of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on Tuesday, mixing faith and foreign policy as he told a group of Christian broadcasters that his policies in the region were predicated on the beliefs that freedom was a God-given right and “every human being bears the image of our maker.”

Skip to next paragraph
The Reach of War
Go to Complete Coverage » In a 42-minute speech to the National Religious Broadcasters convention, Mr. Bush called upon European allies to step up their efforts in Afghanistan, and conceded that recent security gains in Iraq “are tenuous, they’re reversible and they’re fragile.” Still, he insisted his troop buildup there is succeeding.

“The decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision early in my presidency,” Mr. Bush said, to a standing ovation. “It is the right decision at this point in my presidency, and it will forever be the right decision.”

The speech, coming a week before the fifth anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq, is the first of three talks on terrorism and war policy that Mr. Bush will give before next month’s Congressional testimony by the top American military commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and the senior diplomat there, Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/world/middleeast/12prexyweb.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

[Solly Mack]

19. now what part of the gospels say that torturing people is the Christian thing to do?

[grytpype]

20. What a nut.

[TechBear_Seattle]

21. That would be the same faith taught by the Prince of Peace, correct?

The one where "turn the other cheek" and "if you enemy demands your cloak, give him your shirt too" and "when your enemies berate you, praise them"?

Funny, I don't see it.

[islandmkl]

22. "...and it will forever be the right decision.”.....

tell W he might not rely on his version of 'history' being the one written by future, let alone contemporary, historians....

how easy it must be to tell evangelicals that "God made me do it"...

[TrogL]

23. recycled "Manifest Destiny"

He needs a new gag writer.

[Gato Moteado]

26. so if one bears the image of a chimp.......

....does that mean he was created by a monkey?

[timtom]

28. WHAT f***ing faith???

In SATAN???

[fascisthunter]

29. Oh Boy... what a Sick, Sick, Evil man You Are George

Bin Laden and you really do have much in common. Did the CIA profile his character after yours?

[bif]

30. Can you say "Thou shalt not kill" George?

Isn't that the first commandment?

[sakabatou]

32. The fail! It burns!

[xxqqqzme]

33. '...No one is fit to be a master, (except for me)

and no one deserves to be a slave.”(unless I say they are).....

Tell me again how the warlords and the taliban running Afghanistan is democracy?

[FiveGoodMen]

34. 60 Million Americans agreed with him in '04

That was after his joke about not finding any WMDs (as seen in F911).

The numbers are down somewhat now, but there are still millions and millions of the faithful here in the US that fully -- nay droolingly -- support this fuckwad and his continued rape of the world.

Bush won't last forever, but the stupidity and evil that put him where he is are alive and well.

Religion must go.

[Nostradammit]

35. And because some men beat their wives

we must end the institution of marriage.

It's only logical.

:eyes:

[FiveGoodMen]

36. If marriage was what CAUSED men to beat women, then yes.

[Nostradammit]

38. There are billions of people who practise religion

and do NOT support the fuckwad and his continued rape of the world.

[FiveGoodMen]

41. And yet, in this country, it was precisely the most vocal and powerful religious groups

that put Bush in power.

And they somehow managed to forget all of that "turn the other cheek", "love your neighbor", "don't return evil for evil", "don't bear false witness against your neighbor", etc. while remembering to blindly follow the snakes in their pulpits.

[Nostradammit]

43. Would you have denied Martin Luther King, Jr.

his right to practice religion?

Trust me on this - if you go around threatening to do away with religion
you will never achieve your goals.

I understand your anger towards the wicked, designing people who use religion to further
their nefarious designs, but I hope you learn to distinguish between them and true
followers of the world's religions.

[FiveGoodMen]

45. not people's right to practice it...

Just the unsupported belief that it has any substance.

King and many others have shown that believers can be excellent people, but I think those folks would be good without the brainwashing.

I know it won't happen any time soon. I know war won't end any time soon, too, but I'll still go on putting it down.

[Nostradammit]

46. It's impossible that their religion assisted them

in being excellent people?

[FiveGoodMen]

48. No it's not impossible

The thing about religion is that it demands faith -- belief without proof.

In practice, this means faith not just in the existence of a god, but in the trustworthiness of his purported messengers.

Given time, that creates an army of followers willing to do anything for the leader since he (it's almost always a he) is supposed to know what god wants.

Eventually, along comes some miscreant who convinces this army that he knows god's will for them. Dobson, Robertson, Falwell, Hagee, etc. etc. etc.

So the army follows these idiots into war, theocracy, gay-bashing, woman-hating, racism, whatever.

Then along comes some reformer who tries very hard to weed all this crap out of their church...

...but it doesn't take long before someone else takes over, corruption creeps in, and the whole thing starts again.

I know many believers strive to follow Jesus' teachings -- which is a fine thing to do -- and yet it always goes downhill.

[Nostradammit]

50. How do you propose to end religion?

It has been with us forever and will be with us forever.

Some people will always need to believe in a higher intelligence than the one
commonly displayed around here.

[FiveGoodMen]

52. Well, I don't have a plan or a time-table.

But the world is absolutely packed with people telling me that their beliefs are right and everyone had better get on board -- and I intend to keep objecting.

I won't wipe it all out. My contributions probably won't even be noticed. But when every believer gets to say that god is great and everyone agrees with them, I get to say that I disagree strongly.

Sometimes just standing and being counted is the only avenue open.

As for people needing to believe, you may be right. But it would be interesting to see how many would still feel that need if they hadn't been bombarded from their earliest youth with the notions that...

1) They are terrible people who deserve eternal torture

2) That eternal torture actually does await them

3) That their parents know the one and only way out of that fate

4) That everyone's parents in other parts of the world are wrong and are dooming their children

5) That virtually everyone agrees that this is how things are

[Nostradammit]

37. Self-Delete

[Uncle Joe]

39. If Bush had faith,

he wouldn't have mocked the execution of a murderer, whether you believe she deserved to be executed or not. I believe it was Jesus who said "let he that is without sin cast the first stone" well apparently this woman was being stoned to death, but that wasn't good enough for Bush.

If Bush had faith, he would've allowed the votes to be counted in Florida, thereby trusting the people's will instead of going to court to stop it from happening.

If Bush had faith, he would never have reversed him self within days after taking office regarding the capping of global warming green house gases, when he campaigned to the opposite obviously lying to the American People.

If Bush had faith, he would never have illegally wiretapped the American People shortly after coming to office, even before 9/11 and without judicial oversight making an end run around FISA. Had he felt the law insufficient, he would've had the faith to go to the Republican controlled congress and had it changed, instead of breaking it.

If Bush had faith, he would've trusted the U.N. inspectors when they said, there were no WMDs in Iraq and worked with the rest of Earth to keep a fourth rate military power in check.

If Bush had faith, he would've done everything in his power to help the victims of Katrina instead of abandoning them to drown and suffer, while cutting cake with Mccain and playing air guitar.

If Bush had faith, he would've trusted in the expert's opinion that torture is ineffective and kept the U.S. on the moral high road regarding this issue and honored long time treaties against it instead of dragging the U.S. down to the level of the despots of whom he claims to despise.

I have no idea what Bush has, but I don't believe it's faith anymore than I believe he's compassionate.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

42. This kid was made in God's Image...

But that was before his makeover. May the God you worship judge you with the same mercy you've shown to others.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

44. ...

There are no words...

[laylah]

47. IF there is a HELL

that POS is gonna burn! :puke:

[donkeyotay]

49. I thought he was working for the Haves and the Have Mores.

Two masters and all.

[jwirr]

51. What is really ironic about this is that he is convicting himself before

God using God's own words. *ss & Co. have done none of the things he is talking about and actually have done just the opposite. If I were them I would be hiding from God.

[LostinVA]

53. He says he's a Methodist -- they're against the Iraq war -- I bet they love him quoting his "faith"

[classysassy]

54. Defend

your policies,can't be done,sir you are a very sick man.

[rdmtimp]

55. Eat. Sh*t. Die.

That about sums it up.

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[tomg]

56. self-delete