War Avoidance? "To the Max!"

or How God Shapes my Foreign Policy

Via the Editor & Publisher:

President Bush today said he had tried to avoid war with Iraq "diplomatically to the max."

Speaking to a business group in Irvine, Ca., he admitted mistakes were made in planning for the Iraq invasion, but he defended the troop level, saying "it was the troop level necessary to do the job," and he would commit the same number if given a second chance.

Isn't the quote something like 'insanity is taking the same action and expecting different results?'

Bush also explained, in unusually stark terms, how his belief in God influences his foreign policy. "I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things that I think are true," he said. "One, I believe there's an Almighty. And, secondly, I believe one of the great gifts of the Almighty is the desire in everybody's soul, regardless of what you look like or where you live, to be free.

"I believe liberty is universal. I believe people want to be free. And I know that democracies do not war with each other."

So George W. Bush views "freedom" (notice the scare quotes) as God's gift to the world. Spreading it is the presidential equivalent of sharing the Good News. That means two things: First, that repeated failure won't stop him from trying to make sure that God's gifts are spread to as many nations as possible. Second, no amount of real evidence will make any difference, one way or the other, if Bush decides that it's time to spread God's word I mean God's gift to a new set of Godless Heathens.

George W. Bush War in Iraq God Foreign Policy