The Sunday Times October 09, 2005
Word of God fails to endear Bush to right
Tony Allen-Mills
SUGGESTIONS that God has been talking to President George W Bush appear unlikely to impress American religious conservatives who have been showing increasing signs of disillusionment with their born-again Christian president.
Renewed speculation about the nature of Bush’s much-discussed faith has followed reports last week that he told a senior Palestinian official that he was on a “mission from God” when he invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.
Nabil Shaath, who was the Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said in a BBC interview that Bush had added: “God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan’. And I did. And then God would tell me, ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq’. And I did.”
Shaath has since modified his original account of Bush’s words during the Israeli- Palestinian summit at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in 2003. Both he and Mahmoud Abbas, then the Palestinian prime minister and who was also present at the meeting, now say Bush did not claim that he had “felt God’s words coming to me”. The White House has also denied that Bush said anything of the kind.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1817570,00.html