Faith against reason

[Briar]

(Hope this hasn't been posted. I can't see it...)

Faith against reason

The US election has exposed a growing conflict between two world views. Can they co-exist in one country?

Jonathan Freedland in New Jersey

....

America's centre of gravity has moved rightward, creating a set of shibboleths that cannot be challenged. If liberals established a few forbidden zones in the last 20 years under the rubric of so-called political correctness - making it off-limits to demean women, gays and ethnic minorities - then the right has now erected some barriers of its own.

First among these taboos is the military. No politician can utter a word that seems to question the armed services: so Kerry does not mention the Abu Ghraib scandal. Next is 9/11, which has been all but sanctified in American discourse. Because of that event, the US has re-imagined itself as a victim nation: witness the yellow-ribbon bumperstickers, usually bearing the slogan "Support America". (Ribbons were previously reserved for the suffering: red for Aids, pink for breast cancer.)

As a result, any action taken in the name of 9/11 cannot be questioned. Oppose the Patriot Act, with its restrictions on civil liberties, and you are a friend of the terrorists - and, if you are a Democratic congressional candidate, Republicans will air TV ads against you placing your face alongside that of Osama bin Laden.

Show concern for international opinion, and you are some kind of traitor. Kerry spoke French to a Haitian audience in Florida on Monday, the first time he had done so in public for many months: even to appear to have links with the outside world is a negative in today's politics, which has become all about America first.

More at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1331359,00.html

[izzie]

1. Well what can I say that I have not said a 1000 times. It is scary.

I have seen a ton of those ribbons on cars by the way and have not seen many Kerry or Bush stickers. My Bush and country right or wrong I guess. It is not the American way but what can one do?I think Bush will bring this country to its knees and we can sit back and see China and EU take over the leaders of the world role. It may not be so bad if Europe can hole on but I do worry about China. It is growing faster than us and spends a lot of money on its army plus it is really educating science people .

[juliagoolia]

2. spreading like wildfire.

http://www.antiwar.com/blog/index.php?id=P1369


Reality Debased
If you thought Ron Suskind manufactured that quotation, Pat Robertson erases all doubts:

The founder of the U.S. Christian Coalition said Tuesday he told President George W. Bush before the invasion of Iraq that he should prepare Americans for the likelihood of casualties, but the president told him, "We're not going to have any casualties."

Pat Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, said he had that conversation with the president in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 invasion. He described Bush in the meeting as "the most self-assured man I've ever met in my life."

"You remember Mark Twain said, 'He looks like a contented Christian with four aces.' I mean he was just sitting there like, 'I'm on top of the world,' " Robertson said on the CNN show, "Paula Zahn Now."

"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' "

Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."
The most charitable reading of this I can muster is that Bush thinks casualty means fatality. Oh sure, Reverend, the boys might get a few flesh wounds . . .

But for God's sake, still! This lunatic thought it would be possible to conquer a nation of 25 million, a nation he had endlessly pronounced a threat to world peace, WITHOUT A SINGLE DEATH? Or did he think he could simply decree such an outcome?

Saddam Hussein just moved down a spot on my list of people who shouldn't have nukes.