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PEACE:
Foreign Policy & Terrorism | August 26, 2005
"GOD"
VS.
"COUNTRY"
By
Douglas Drenkow, "Progressive
Thinking" As
Posted in "GordonTalk"
and "Comments
From Left Field"
Let me play the Devil's
Advocate and defend a man of God.
The Irreverend Pat Robertson
has predictably caught a lot of flak from a lot of quarters for
suggesting that the
U.S. assassinate Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, a
leading critic of the war in Iraq and a vocal opponent of market
"reforms" in developing nations.
From the State Department to
the Defense Department, the Bush Administration quickly
distanced itself from such sentiments. Why, no less than Donald
Rumsfeld weighed in with the following: "Certainly it's
against the law. Our department doesn't do that type of
thing."
Heaven forbid! Although...in
April, 2002, the White House did do everything but break out
Geo. Dubya's old Yale
cheerleading outfit when there was a coup against President
Chavez -- democratically
elected President Chavez.
But aren't we killing and dying
by the thousands in Iraq to spread demo... My mistake.
And from my warped perspective,
dear readers, it gets even juicier than that.
While it's all too easy to
simply condemn the assassin-mongering Reverend Robertson out of
hand, just listen carefully to all he said.
"If he thinks we're trying
to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and
do it."
OK, so the Gospel according to
St. Pat doesn't exactly jibe with the King James version -- then
again, to be perfectly frank, Jesus didn't explicitly sanction
any war or killing, justified or not (when it comes to twisting
our ethics to suit our purpose, we're all contortionists at some
point or another) -- but just listen to the follow-through.
"It's a whole lot cheaper
than starting a war," Robertson continued, "and I
don't think any oil shipments will stop."
Ah, I almost forgot -- Venezuela's
got more oil than anybody else this side of the Sahara. A
little piece of heaven in our very own hemisphere. How
deliciously tempting! You know, the more I think about it, the
more that Chavez character sounds like a communist or a
terrorist or some sorta Godless -ist!
But hold the phone, Holy
Rollers! Did I detect a little "jab" at the President?
A man charged by the Almighty Himself to wage a crusade against
the infidels? What was that bit about "a whole lot cheaper
than starting a war"? Just a slip of the well-oiled tongue?
Or is the Coalition of the Willing becoming somewhat less
willing?
Robertson expounded and
expanded: "We have the ability to take him out, and I think
the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need
another $200 billion dollar war to get rid of one, you know,
strong-arm dictator."
One, you know, strong-arm
dictator like the
guy in his underwear we pulled out of the spiderhole?
Hey, now, Pat -- it's one thing
to call for the assassination of a duly elected head of state
(although guess whose President would be at the top of the hit
parade if we encouraged such means of "diplomacy"?)
but it's quite another to criticize the President's war of
choice while we still have troops in the field!
Pat, just listen to what Thomas
Cadmus, National Commander of the American Legion, had to
say the other day at the Legion's National Convention, in
Honolulu (and it's quite a lulu):
"For many of us, the
visions of Jane Fonda glibly spouting anti-American messages
with the North Vietnamese and protestors denouncing our own
forces four decades ago is forever etched in our memories. We
must never let that happen again...
"We had hoped that the
lessons learned from the Vietnam War would be clear to our
fellow citizens. Public protests against the war here at home
while our young men and women are in harm's way on the other
side of the globe only provide aid and comfort to our
enemies."
You listening, Pat? Sounds
pretty much like the
Constitutional definition of "treason" to me. Now,
don't you feel just plain petty and ashamed of yourself, crying
about the price tag of the war in Iraq? How can you put a price
on freedom, Reverend? (Hmm, shouldn't a man of God be a tad more
concerned about the price of the war in
terms of human lives and limbs than in terms of the Almighty
Dollar, as costly as that truly is? But I digress)
Pat, just listen to what else
Commander Cadmus had to say: "The American Legion will
stand against anyone and any group that would demoralize our
troops, or worse, endanger their lives by encouraging terrorists
to continue their cowardly attacks against freedom-loving
peoples."
You hear that, Reverend? Maybe
it wasn't all those goddamned homosexuals and feminists and
evolutionists who brought fire
and damnation down on New York on 9/11 but rather ye of
little faith in our Crusader in Chief.
Commander Cadmus concluded his
sermon: "No one respects the right to protest more than one
who has fought for it, but we hope that Americans will present
their views in correspondence to their elected officials rather
than by public media events guaranteed to be picked up and used
as tools of encouragement by our enemies."
Amen. So there you have it,
Pat. Just sit down, shut up, and make like those
three little monkeys: You know -- See No Evil, Hear No Evil,
Speak No Evil.
I suppose if you must criticize
the Prez, just send him an e-mail or a Candygram (R)
or something. But why must you make waves, Pat? Didn't Geo.
Dubya get permission from his Father
in Heaven to go to war (even though his wussy
listen-to-Colin Powell-and-the-U.N.-and-not-finish-business-in-the-first-Gulf
War poppa counseled against it)?
Just who the heck do you think
you are, Reverend Robertson? Cindy Sheehan?!
Not quite. Ms.
Sheehan mourns the dead.
(Hat Tip to Scott Levison,
loyal Barry Gordon fan,
for the American Legion link)
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