Tread lightly on the things of earth

Geov Parrish, writing in Working for Change article Divine bullying, points out the horrendous Shock and Awe plan proposed by the U.S. Pentagon to annihilate Baghdad — possibly killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens in two days — a plan whose “ridding the world of evil” hypocrisy boggles the mind.

But Geov continues, addressing my most pressing concern with laser-like accuracy:

This leads us to the third major element of the Iraq invasion … God. Not just any God, but the God that blesses America, the God that rebirthed Dubya, the God that is never more than a paragraph away from George Bush’s lips in a major speech, the God that justifies America’s glorious crusade …

Bush’s State of the Union speech, and his administration’s consistent rhetoric, evoke exactly the same view of the world as that which fueled Manifest Destiny and the White Man’s Burden. … It is only we who are wise enough and evolved enough (and saved enough) to decide who is and is not fit to rule [others’] lands … it is our divinely granted right to take ownership for ourselves.

In the State of the Union address, Bush once again announced — to thunderous applause, and little criticism afterwards — that America stands alone in its responsibility to mankind, its faith in Providence, and its destiny. We are, in other words, the Chosen People in the Chosen Land, and those who displease us must die.

We are, in other words, cut from the same cloth as our Islamic fundamentalist terrorist brothers. (This should not be news to those of us who believe in one Creator of all and that humanity is fallen.)

It is this self-righteous, plank-eyed state we’re in, this grotesque distortion and misrepresentation of God and God’s Kingdom we’re promulgating, that I will work ‘til my dying breath to set right.

What is the downside of continuing as we are?

It’s almost a natural law that such hubris will be struck down; the question is not whether, but when, or how …

And it could be — very likely will be — that such naked aggression will incur the wrath of the world, and that if it does not stop … one of the results is that bloodshed will be brought to our shores … until we who bear responsibility for our government either learn the lesson or are rendered, ala Saddam, incapable of further harm.

[discovered via Thomas at Stand Down]