Americans like to believe they choose rational men and women for their political leaders.
This is especially true when it comes to deciding who will govern the country for the next four years as President of the United States.
But this has not always been the case.
One such irrational President was Richard M. Nixon, elected in 1968 and re-elected in 1972.
In 1970, while deciding whether to widen the Vietnam war by bombing Cambodia, he repeatedly watched the movie “Patton.” Then he ordered the bombing to begin.
Richard Nixon
In 1974, as Justice Department investigations of Watergate increasingly threatened his Presidency, his behavior grew increasingly erratic.
He drank heavily, took pills by the handful, and, on at least one occasion, was seen talking to pictures of Presidents that adorned the walls of the White House.
In the final weeks of his administration, as impeachment for his Watergate abuses seemed increasingly certain, Nixon inspired fears of a military coup in his Secretary of Defense.
James Schlesinger warned all military commands to ignore any direct orders from the White House–or any other source–without the counter-signature of the SecDef himself.
On his last night in the White House–August 8, 1974–Nixon summoned Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to the Oval Office.
Half-rambling, half-crying, Nixon asked Kissinger to kneel with him on the White House rug and pray for God’s forgiveness. Kissinger, though Jewish, had never shown any interest in religion. Neverheless, he reluctantly did so.
Later that night, Nixon called Kissinger and pleaded with him to never tell anyone “that I cried, and I was not strong.” Kissinger promised to keep his secret–and then promptly leaked it.
Nixon, however, was not the only President whose irrationality played havoc with history.
In June, 2001, George W. Bush met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovenia. Bush judged others–even world leaders–through the lens of his own fundamentalist Christian theology.
And Putin was quick to take advantage of it.
George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin
BUSH: Let me say something about what caught my attention, Mr. President, was that your mother gave you a cross which you had blessed in Israel, the Holy Land.
PUTIN: It’s true.
BUSH: That amazes me, that here you were a Communist, KGB operative, and yet you were willing to wear a cross. That speaks volumes to me, Mr. President. May I call you Vladimir?
Falling back on his KGB training, Putin seized on this apparent point of commonality to build a bond. He told Bush that his dacha had once burned to the ground, and the only item that had been saved was that cross.
BUSH: Well, that’s the story of the cross as far as I’m concerned. Things are meant to be.
Afterward, Bush and Putin gave an outdoor news conference.
“Is this a man that Americans can trust?” Associated Press correspondent Ron Fournier asked Bush.
“Yes,” said Bush. “I was able to get a sense of his soul, a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country. I wouldn’t have invited him to my ranch if I didn’t trust him.”
In early 2003, Bush telephoned French President Jaques Chirac, hoping to enlist his support–and troops–for his long-planned invasion of Iraq.
Failing to convince Chirac that overthrowing Saddam Hussein was politically advantageous, Bush took a different tack.
BUSH: Jaques, you and I share a common faith. You’re Roman Catholic, I’m Methodist, but we’re both Christians committed to the teachings of the Bible. We share one common Lord.
Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East. Biblical prophecies are being fulfilled.
This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase His people’s enemies before a new age begins.
When the call ended, Chirac asked his advisors: “Gog and Magog–do any of you know what he’s talking about?”
When no one did, Chirac ordered: Find out.
The answer came from Thomas Roemer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne.
Romer explained that the Old Testament book of Ezekiel contains two chapters (38 and 39) in which God rages against Gog and Magog, sinister and mysterious forces menacing Israel.
Jehovah vows to slaughter them ruthlessly. In the New Testament book of Revelation (20:8) Gog and Magog are depicted as gathering nations for battle: “And fire came down from God out of Heaven, and devoured them.”
Chirac decided to oppose joining the upcoming invasion of Iraq. France, he said, would not fight a war based on an American Presient’s interpretation of the Bible.
Click here: 500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars: Kurt Eichenwald
Bush’s war cost the lives of 4,486 Americans–and an estimated 655,000 Iraqis.
Bush, however, was not the first President to invoke Gog and Magog.
Ronald Reagan predicted that this Biblical confrontation would pit the United States against the Soviet Union–which had abandoned God at the time of the Russian Revolution.
Evangelical Christians twice elected Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush to the Presidency.
In light of this, voters should think carefully before choosing candidates who accept superstitious beliefs over rational inquiry.
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LET ALLAH SORT IT OUT
In Bureaucracy, History, Military, Politics, Social commentary on October 9, 2015 at 1:03 pmEven confirmed imbeciles can sometimes get it right.
Or, in the case of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, partially right.
Speaking at the annual meeting of the Faith and Freedom Coalition on June 15, 2013, Palin said the United States should not intervene in Syria while Barack Obama holds the Presidency:
“Until we have a commander in chief who knows what he is doing… let Allah sort it out!”
Actually, she got it half-right: “Let Allah sort it out”–regardless of who is President.
But noted draft-dodger and former President Bill Clinton had different advice for President Obama.
Bill Clinton
Clinton urged Obama to intervene in Syria:
“Suppose I had let a million people, two million people be refugees out of Kosovo, a couple hundred thousand people die, and they say, ‘You could have stopped this by dropping a few bombs. Why didn’t you do it?’ And I say, ‘Because the House of Representatives voted 75% against it’”?
“You look like a total wuss, and you would be.”
This was truly heady stuff, coming from a man who has proudly boasted how he outwitted his draft board and thus escaped military service in Vietnam.
Apparently, for Clinton, it’s OK for other Americans to risk their lives in pointless military misadventures on behalf of foreigners who hate us.
It’s just not OK for bullet-shy chicken-hawks like Bill Clinton to do it.
Clinton doesn’t seem aware, or concerned, that, in Syria, two of America’s most deadly enemies are now waging war–with each other.
Yes, it’s Hezbollah (Party of God) vs. Al-Qaeda (The Base).
Hezbollah is comprised of Shiite Muslims, who form a minority of Islamics. A sworn enemy of Israel, it has kidnapped scores of Americans suicidal enough to visit Lebanon and truck-bombed the Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 299 Americans.
Flag of Hezbollah
Al-Qaeda, on the other hand, is made up of Sunni Muslims, who form the majority of that religion. It is intolerent of non-Sunni Muslims and has instigated violence against them. It denounces them as “takfirs”–heretics–and thus worthy of extermination.
Al Qaeda has attacked the mosques and gatherings of liberal Muslims, Shias, Sufis and other non-Sunnis. Examples of sectarian attacks include the Sadr City bombings, the 2004 Ashoura massacre and the April, 2007 Baghdad bombings.
Flag of Al Qaeda
In a June 1, 2013 column entitled, “Stop the Madness,” Dr. James J. Zogby, the founder and president of the Arab American Institute, warns:
“What began as a popular revolt against a brutal and ossified dictatorship, Syria has now degenerated into a bloody battlefield pitting sects and their regional allies against each other in a ‘dance unto death.’”
The Syrian conflict began on March 15, 2011, triggered by protests demanding political reforms and the ouster of dictator Bashar al-Assad.
Since then, more than 310,000 people have been killed in Syria’s uprising-turned-civil war.
“On the one side,” said Zogby, “is the Ba’ath regime, supported by Russia, Iran, Hizbullah, and elements in the Iraqi government.
“Arrayed against them are a host of Syrians (some of whom have defected from the armed forces and others who have formed militias receiving arms and support from a number of Arab states and Turkey) and a cast of thousands of foreign Sunni fighters (some of whom have affiliated with al Qaeda) who have entered Syria to wage war on behalf of their brethren.”
But Clinton isn’t the only one who has urged Obama to waste American lives in a cause that only Islamic terror groups and right-wing Americans find compelling.
Arizona U.S. Senator John McCain has repeatedly demanded that the Obama administration militarily intervene in Syria.
John McCain
He has demanded that the United States create a “no-fly” zone over Syria to deny Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad the use of his air force against his rebellious subjects.
McCain, unlike Clinton, did serve in Vietnam–as a U.S. Navy pilot. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He remained a prisoner of war until his release in 1973.
Now McCain wants today’s young servicemen to have the same opportunities he did–to be blown out of the sky and taken prisoner for another worthless cause.
Just as Sarah Palin was partially correct in urging “let Allah sort it out,” so, too, was Clinton partially correct in his “total wuss” remarks.
President Obama can rightly be called a “total wuss”–but not for keeping Americans out of harm’s way in a war they have no stake in.
He can legitimately be called a “total wuss”–for surrendering to the demands of the same neocons who lied America into a needless 10-year war in Iraq.
But it’s not too late for Obama to recover from his mistake.
He can establish an all-volunteer brigade for those Americans willing to fight and possibly die in yet another pointless war. And he can offer to fly them to the border of Syria so they can carry out their self-appointed “conquer or die” mission.
If these armchair strategists refuse to put their own lives on the line in defense of a “cause” they claim to believe in, Obama should have the courage to brutally–and repeatedly–point this out.
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