Bush says he was told by God to invade Iraq and Afghanistan
GEORGE W Bush has claimed he was told by God to invade Iraq and attack
Osama bin Laden's stronghold of Afghanistan.
This was part of a divine mission to bring peace to the Middle East,
security for Israel, and their own state for the Palestinians.
The President made the assertion during his first meeting with
Palestinian leaders in June 2003, according to a new BBC series last
night.
The broadcast came on the same day Mr Bush launched an impassioned
attack in Washington on Islamic militants, likening their ideology to
that of Communism, and accusing them of seeking to "enslave whole
nations" and set up a radical Islamic empire "that spans from Spain to
Indonesia."
In the programme, Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, the former
Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath says that Mr Bush told him
and Mahmoud Abbas, former Prime Minister and now Palestinian President,
that "I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George,
go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God
would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq,' and I did."
And "now again," Mr Bush is quoted as telling the two men, "I feel
God's words coming to me: 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get
the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by
God, I'm gonna do it."
Mr Abbas remembers how the President told him he had a "moral and
religious obligation" to act.
The White House has refused to comment on what it terms a private
conversation. But the BBC account is anything but implausible, given
how throughout his Presidency Mr Bush, a born-again Christian, has
never hidden the importance of his faith.
From the outset he has couched the "global war on terror" in
quasi-religious terms, as a struggle between good and evil. Al-Qa'ida
terrorists are routinely described as evil-doers. For Mr Bush, the
invasion of Iraq has always been part of the struggle against
terrorism, and he appears to see himself as the executor of the divine
will.
He told author Bob Woodward, whose 2004 book 'Plan of Attack' is the
definitive account of the administration's road to war in Iraq, that
after giving the order to invade in March 2003, he walked in the White
House garden, prayed "that our troops be safe, be protected by the
Almighty." As he went into this critical period, he told Mr Woodward,
"I was praying for strength to do the Lord's will. I'm surely not going
to justify war based upon God. Understand that. Nevertheless, in my
case, I pray that I will be as good a messenger of his will as
possible. And then, of course, I pray for forgiveness."
Another telling sign of Mr Bush's religion was his answer to Mr
Woodward's question on whether he had asked his father - the former
President - for advice on what to do.
The current President replied that his earthly father was "the wrong
father to appeal to for advice . . . there is a higher father that I
appeal to."
The same sense of mission permeated his speech at the National
Endowment of Democracy yesterday. Its main news was Mr Bush's claim
that Western security services had thwarted 10 planned major attacks by
al-Qa'ida since September 11 2001, three of them against the mainland
USA.
More striking though was Mr Bush's unrelenting portrayal of radical
Islam as a global menace, which only the forces of freedom - led by the
US - could repel. It was delivered at a moment when the President's
domestic approval ratings are at their lowest ebb, in large part
because of casualties in the war in Iraq. (=A9 Independent News Service)
Rupert Cornwell
in Washington
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