This. Is. Unreal. Try and wrap your mind around these statements:
The top US general defended the leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying it is inspired by God.
"He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country," said Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Mind boggling, isn't it? Every single thing Rumsfeld predicted before the war has turned out to be false. What he claimed would be a quick, easy, $50 billion war has turned into a trillion dollar boondoggle that has made us less safe, nor more safe. Anyone who claims he's doing what God tells him to do is insulting God.
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Maybe Rumfeld's prayers are being intercepted by Allah.
Not necessarily.
Perhaps he follow's Iago's philosophy. "Credo in un Dio crudel."
He meant to say "He leads in a way that the Dark Lord tells him is best for our country," you know, DarthC.
Really, I would fire this asshat. What was he [not]thinking?
Anyone who claims he's doing what God tells him to do is insulting God.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
"The Lord works in mysterious ways."
So I've heard, but what no one ever explains is why these mysterious ways often involve the deaths of innocents, persecution of those of differing beliefs and disassociation with reality. A god working in mysterious ways is an excuse, not an explanation.
I LOL'd. :D
Oh it's all a bunch of bullshit anyway, so any insult to god is purely incidental. The real insult is to humanity: there are many, many people who will believe him and he knows they will.
And lol at Allah intercepting Rumsfeld's prayers! I'll be sniggering about that all day =D
Was the general referring to George or Karl as the source of Rummy's inspiration?
Wow.
I'm kind of starting to lose track of how many times Bush or someone in the Bush Administration has referred to the executive's actions as divinely inspired and it's starting to strike me as just really weird.
U.S. leaders speaking in religious terms is hardly new at all, but is there really any precedent in past American history for leaders actually outright saying that God tells the politicians what to do, as we se in this article? And is this actually a real trend within the Bush white house, or am I just overreacting?
Coin-
It's not unusual for general statements to be made about seeking divine guidance and such. Even Washington and Adams made many such statements. But it's pretty unusual to claim that God specifically said to do X.
Now that you mention it, I hope someone's keeping count. What instances can anyone here recall?
Ed-- Right, right, and that's not even particularly unusual. It's, and this is kind of as you just said, that there's some kind of line between "I hope for divine guidance in this matter" and "I have received divine guidance in this matter". That line might be the difference between "religious" and "messianic".
One might even say there's a pretty big difference between the historical Manifest Destiny angle of "God wants us to invade Mexico" and the modern Unitary Executive angle of "God wants me to invade Iraq".
My memory's shot, but I think putting together a list would definitely be a worthy project.
Nothing like separation of church and state...and the irony of both sides of the war claiming to have God on their side. Nothing new, right?
So I guess we can assume that Rumsfeld tells the generals that the good Lord tells him what to do, and that some of the generals believe him when he says that. Ooooookey doooookey...
On the other hand maybe this general just makes up whatever he wants. Cuckoo!
More Olbermann brilliance:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uqxmPjB0WSs
He's one brave dude, IMO.