SwiftVets.com

[NYCnative]

The writer is not a Bush fan. He speaks of the world being a much safer and a much more democratic place. Thanks to the unipolar world with America as the sole superpower. The world shouldn't be afraid of Bush because of his strong religious views. He is a staunch believer in secularism and thinks of Bush as a religious zealot, but he has concluded the world has nothing to fear from him... LOVE IT!

Bush: Mixing religion with evangelicalism

RAZI AZMI

A fellow columnist and friend thinks that I am "soft on Bush". Considering the degree of President George Bush's unpopularity in Pakistan and worldwide, it would be an understatement to say that most readers will concur with his view. When Bush is the subject, nothing short of outright denunciation is in order these days. I, therefore, consider it necessary to offer an explanation for my perceived 'softness'. I can live with Bush as US president - or as the world's sole policeman - for eight years or longer, but would hate to spend even eight days under the Taliban's theocracy, Saddam's dictatorship. I have a strong feeling that the vast majority of people everywhere feel the same way.

Far be it from me - being a staunch believer in secularism - to approve of Bush's brand of evangelicalism and his penchant for mixing religion with politics. However, for me Bush is a non-issue. Firstly, I am not an American, nor are my readers. Secondly, Bush is not a threat to the world or to democracy and secularism in America, but Al Qaeda and its many affiliates who carry out terrorist attacks in the name of Islam are a clear and present danger. And, finally, the US constitution and civil society are capable of putting religious zealots, not to mention bigots, in their proper place. In any case, those who take the worst possible view of George Bush may relax in the knowledge that on January 21, 2009, he will have passed into oblivion, for the 22nd Amendment to the US constitution (1951) bars presidents from running for a third term.

The widespread revulsion for Bush is based on two factors: his Christian evangelicalism and his "war on terror."

The First Amendment (1792) prevents any US president from infusing religion in politics. It states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ...". These ten words enshrine and guarantee the highly secular nature of the American state. Applying this constitutional bar in 1962, the US Supreme Court (in Engel vs Vitale) outlawed prayers in schools. Ruling on the constitutionality of a 22-word prayer, crafted by the New York State Board of Regents, which was read aloud daily in public school classrooms and in which student participation was voluntary, the Court said:

"Neither the fact that the prayer may be denominationally neutral nor the fact that its observance on the part of the students is voluntary can serve to free it from the limitations of the Establishment Clause [First Amendment]... Its first and most immediate purpose rested on the belief that a union of government and religion tends to destroy government and to degrade religion... The Establishment Clause thus stands as an expression of principle on the part of the Founders of our Constitution that religion is too personal, too sacred, too holy, to permit its 'unhallowed perversion' by a civil magistrate." President Reagan failed in his attempt to re-introduce prayer in schools. This also explains why Bush avoids any direct mention of Christianity in his speeches and press conferences, except in a very general sense and together with other major faiths, including Islam.

To overturn this constitutional prohibition would require a constitutional amendment, which is not to be taken lightly. There are essentially two ways spelled out in the Constitution for amendments, of which one has never been used. The only viable method, therefore, is for a bill to pass both parts of the Congress (House of Representatives and Senate), by a two-thirds majority in each. Once the bill has passed both houses, it goes on to the states. The amendment must be approved by three-fourths of states (which means 38 of the 50 states). Furthermore, at no point does the president have a role in the formal amendment process. Small wonder that only 17 amendments have been made since 1792.

An episode involving religion during the Bush presidency is worth mentioning. Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court installed a 2.6-tonne, four-foot-high monument inscribed with the biblical Ten Commandments in the court building on July 31, 2001. On October 30, 2001, the American Civil Liberties Union, in conjunction with Americans United for Separation of Church and State, filed a suit against him, saying his display of the Ten Commandments was an unconstitutional establishment of religion in a government building.

"Roy's Rock" with the Ten Commandments, as the monument came to be called, proved feeble before this legal challenge and was gone by November 2003, Bush's evangelicalism notwithstanding. Not only that, but Justice Moore also lost his job. Alabama's nine-member Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed Chief Justice Roy Moore from office for defying a federal judge's order to move the Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building. The ethics panel said Moore put himself above the law by " wilfully and publicly" flouting the order to remove it.

George Bush's military intervention in Afghanistan and invasion of Iraq have attracted the most condemnation.

However, the former has been an astounding success (above all, from the Afghans' point of view), while the latter is hardly the debacle many commentators represent it to be. In Afghanistan, an utterly despicable regime has been replaced by an elected president. Schools and roads are being built where the religious police once trod. In Iraq, except for the twenty per cent Sunnis who rode roughshod over the rest of the population under the previous regime, the people are eagerly awaiting the elections due next month.

Many people grieve over the unipolar world and hark back nostalgically to the bipolar world of the Soviet era. They need to be reminded that during the heyday of bipolarism and Cold War, the world came close to a nuclear catastrophe (Cuban Missile Crisis), the Korean and Vietnam wars wrought havoc in the Korean peninsula and Indo-China, there were two Arab-Israeli wars and two wars between India and Pakistan. The Soviet Union invaded Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan, while US meddling led to the overthrow of an elected government in Chile and caused turmoil in many Latin American countries. Angola and Mozambique were torn apart by gruesome civil wars with superpower involvement on all sides, China invaded North Vietnam to "teach it a lesson," and the Iraq-Iran war led to a million deaths. Taking advantage of the superpower tensions, Morocco occupied Western Sahara and Indonesia invaded East Timor. The Cold War generated a war between Somalia and Ethiopia. It allowed South Africa to remain in the throes of apartheid and gave Suharto a free hand to kill or incarcerate hundreds of thousands of alleged communists in Indonesia. The Khmer Rouge, who wiped out a fifth of Cambodia's population, were also a by-product of that era.

The world is now a much safer and a much more democratic place. Thanks to the unipolar world with America as the sole superpower, democracy is advancing while dictatorships are receding. Dictators who roamed with a swagger now scurry for cover. Disenfranchised people now feel empowered, from Afghanistan to Georgia, and from Iraq to Ukraine. Bush's band of neo-cons is succeeding where his more illustrious predecessors failed; they act where others balked.

Bush is not a threat to any democratic dispensation anywhere in the world. If he has made the world a trifle unsafe for thugs and dictators, he is to be commended. In any case, he will be gone sooner than we think. But terrorism in the name of Islam, which now stalks the world, is an unprecedented development in terms of magnitude, intensity, scope and danger. I can definitely live with Bush as US president - or as the world's sole policeman - for eight years or longer, but would hate to spend even eight days under the Taliban's theocracy, Saddam's dictatorship or a regime of Ayatollahs. I have a strong feeling that the vast majority of people everywhere feel the same way. —SAN-Feature Service

The author, a former academic with a doctorate in modern history, is now a freelance writer and columnist.

http://independent-bangladesh.com/news/dec/22/22122004ed.htm#A5
_________________
"From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof." -Inscription on the Liberty Bell

[I B Squidly]

I'm sticking this one on my clipboard!

Thanks.

[NYCnative]

[I B Squidly]

I tread in many places where the moonbats roam. Feckle Americans and Euro-trash just love to rant about Hamburg, Dresden, Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Tokyo. Never is there any perspective, sense of causation or appreciation for place and time. Total fatalities in the aforementioned Japanese cities don't equal the unprovoked Rape of Nanking. German cities casualties are less than a month on the Eastern Front corralling the untermenchen. Funny how speaking Japanese will get you forcibly tossed from a Korean, chinese or philipine tavern. Encountered some joker who claimed Asians were above racism...Genghis Khan, Tamerlain, Hulugai, or Tojo weren't on his study list. Ask a Japanese about the Ainu....go ahead 'gaigin', see what it gets you!

You mentioned Rush, so I will digress. I like 'em. He's a clear, intuitive and sane voice in the cacophony of modern media and deserves all the success he's garnered. Where I disagree:

1) He didn't have any fun in the '60s. He holds a palpable grudge for those who did.
2) He's not alone in the puritanesque suspicion that abortion is somehow an enjoyable activity. It's not. Moreover, I can't have one and don't know why it needs be weighted in the national discussion.
3) Before his current contre-temps and reflecting point 1 above Rush used to attack recreational drug use. I believe this mindless 'War on Drugs' is no better than Prohibition and likely worse. The 18th Amendment black market funded the Al Capones like today's narco-terrorists but did not felonize the casual and weak.
Freedom from government excess is missing in both the abortion and drug arguments.

[NYCnative]

Whatever!!! Of course, I don't agree with EVERYTHING everybody says either on the talk shows....

I really don't want to get into a discussion related to Rush... I thought the story I heard on his show needed some exposure.. There are newspapers in Kuwait, Germany and plenty of other countries that support Bush but don't get the media exposure.. All we ever hear about is how everyone everywhere else hates us and America.. I thought it was great to read this guys view on the world.. If anyone has any other articles from other countries that are always reported to hate us that have positive messages, I'd love to see it..

I got this one from FreeMuslims web...

Editor of Kuwaiti Daily: 'We are with President Bush'
September 4, 2004
By MEMRI

Today, Ahmad Al-Jarallah, editor of the Kuwaiti Daily Al-Siyassa and the Arab Times wrote an article in support of President Bush. The following is the article:

"We are with President Bush who has said, 'I am the man who makes history.' Who, other than President Bush, can launch a war against terrorism? Who else will come to the rescue of people suppressed by dictators? Who else was there to build and develop nations? And above all who made democracy the new international system for all the people in this world?

"None of the Middle Eastern countries could face terrorism alone. Some of them went to the extent of making compromises and allying with terrorist organizations. These countries were afraid to kick out terrorists until the United States arrived on the scene, heading a coalition of the willing to root out terrorism. Some people may be skeptical about what the U.S. has achieved. But we know it has not only liberated Afghanistan from Taliban and its ally Osama Bin Laden but also created a modern democratic country with its own police, army and other civil institutions. The United States has also liberated the Iraqi people and created a modern country from the ruins of the former regime. There are some people who still call the war to liberate Iraq as 'baseless,' citing the failure of Americans to find any weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

"What they forget is the Americans did find many mass graves where millions had been buried alive. This alone is enough to prove Saddam's regime was more lethal than any WMD man has known.

"Quite recently the U.S. forces have cleansed the holy places in Najaf of the remnants of the former regime and other infiltrators. When we consider all these there is no doubt Bush is a man who creates history. Western countries, which were against Bush in his war on terrorism, are now feeling the painful stings of terrorism. France has two of its citizens kidnapped in Iraq. The kidnappers have threatened to behead the French hostages if France fails to reconsider its law, which bans Muslim women from wearing hijab in schools.

"Terrorism can be tackled only through war and only the United States, backed by a President who creates history, is capable of handling such a war. We must remember Islam has nothing to do with terrorism. Terrorists exploit the religion to achieve their objective, which is to destroy civilization, kill people, start wars and plunge the world into darkness. We saw how these terrorists kidnapped and killed innocent people under the cloak of religion only to forget all about their cause in exchange for a fistful of dollars.

"The entire world is aware of the cause and effect of terrorism. The killing and beheading of some innocent people won't prevent the United States or its allies from confronting terrorism. Americans are convinced of the need to fight this menace and no country is better equipped to do this job except the United States, which has the mightiest armed forces history has ever known. President Bush has the right to say 'I am the man who makes history' because he is fighting aggression against modern civilization. He is creating countries which enjoy democracy, peace, stability and security. These countries are now able to be a part of the international community sharing their traditions and culture with the rest of the humanity. Bush is the President of not only the United States but the whole world for he is making history on this small planet."
_________________
"From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof." -Inscription on the Liberty Bell