After the recent disclosure of how Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used biblical passages as part of the war briefings for President George W. Bush, GQ magazine has an even more disturbing account: Bush lobbied French President Chirac that the war in Iraq was foretold in the bible and told that it was the final struggle with Gog and Magog.
The magazine quotes French sources as saying that Chirac was so confused by the conversation that he reached out to Thomas Römer, a professor of theology at the University of Lausanne to try to figure out what Bush was talking about. This report is supposedly confirmed in Chirac’w own book.
According to the report, Bush lobbies Chirac in 2003 with quotations from the Book of Revelation and told him that the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated. The bible states:
7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, :8. And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
9. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Gog is known to dwell to the north of Israel.
Evangelicals and Bible literalists often discuss the battle foretold by prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 38 and 39 as key to the 1000 reign of Christ — working on the precise timing indicators from the Bible to plan ahead.
The report says that Bush told Chirac that the fight in the Middle East was “willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”
For the full story, click here.
p gladys –
I understand your skepticism, but evangelicalism is a lazy man’s theology – cherry-pick a passage of the Bible that confirms your prejudices, use it to justify murder or genocide or taking land away from whoever, and that’s all the work/ reading required. And no worries about the morality of wars of aggression etc – the “good” people are justified in whatever they do to the heathens. Like somebody said – the jihadists and Bush (and the neocons) have a lot in common.
This was said by Bush”
Bush said to James Robinson: ‘I feel like God wants me to run for President. I can’t explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen… I know it won’t be easy on me or my family, but God wants me to do it.’
(the Guardian, 2003)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/02/usa.religion
There is an accumulated body of evidence that lends credence to this story. Most importantly, Bush has said many things himself, of a very similar nature.
This is a similar account only told by a different leader:
“Mr Bush revealed the extent of his religious fervour when he met a Palestinian delegation during the Israeli-Palestinian summit at the Egpytian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, four months after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
One of the delegates, Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said: “President Bush said to all of us: ‘I am driven with a mission from God’. God would tell me, ‘George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan’. And I did. And then God would tell me ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq’. And I did.”
Mr Bush went on: “And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, ‘Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.” (the Guardian 2005)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa
Sorry, I don’t believe the Gog Magog story. It makes a great story, and I’m no fan of Bush, but this is pure fiction.
Bush is a reflexively conservative Christian. Not a diehard ideologue — that would require too much reading, too much seriousness. It is not in his character. He does not talk “theology.” Moreover, he surrounded himself with advisors who weren’t religious (though yes, they used religion.) Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld. . . couldn’t quote a Bible verse to save their lives. But yes, they were happy to use the Christian right.
So sorry, I don’t believe it for a minute.
Ravin, after fruitlessly trying to decipher your comments, I have concluded that your entire post is “code” which you are not going to reveal. Declarative sentences with subjects, objects and occasional verbs might be helpful. I will accept at face value, however, your statements that you suffer from sleep deprivation and require medical attention.
ravin is a woman…it’s mz ravin black
I am speechless
Gog and Magog!! Turley & company think Pres. Obama is on a different path than Bush’s? The congress overwhelmingly blocked closing of Gitmo.
More than anything else and Mr. Turley knows it American judiciary has failed us in being independent and in restoring sanity in our culture.Americans have started a crusade against an undefined enemy, in undefined waters for an undefined period. This has not been good for America.
Yeah man! What he (above) said!
i see noone commented on having 2 no fly zones…and u mean valerie blame…because valerie wilson was a secertary…
and i was for getting saddam out of kuwait but not going to baghdad because he had vx and we couldn’t protect our troops in 1991
saddam didn’t buy aluminum tubes for an extra 150 miles of conventional weapons…he didn’t want it to put a real nuke in…saddam was cheap and buying those tubes was for a reason…
that reason being that what would be the easist way to get the US out of the middle east…in 1991 if we had went on to baghdad and he managed to hit a few hundred or thousand at the time with vx it would of been all over the european news and the US would leave with their tail between their legs…
so what did he want those aluminum tubes for? well, like everything saddam did…it was a half assed plan that included putting what would appear nuke material – like maybe sometype of tactial nuke..but mostly it would have been crap with vx or mustard gas or something that came from Libya -libya gave up their nuke stuff after we captured saddam in 2003-in it to take out some troops on their way in and the US would be forced to pull out
saddam would have invaded the Kurds say probably in 2005 because noone would care about him invading the south of iraq…then when AS IN 1991 EVERYONE WOULD HOLD HANDS TO GO INTO IRAQ…thus, the US would be forced to pull out of the middle east with their tail between their legs…
as stated in the 2007 NIE…in 2003 Iran dispensed with their nuke program when we invaded Iraq…
saddam came to power in 1979 with the help of france…iran came to power in 1979 with the help of the french…then they fought a war for 8 years killing iraqis and iranians well both stayed in power
if the US put saddam in power it was up to them to take him out of power…make up ur mind…
i wasn’t against wilson writing what he did it was better than the subject coming from saddam
it was what cheney did afterwards that was the problem then by 2005 it became very clear that cheney was going to continue to make the US look bad by continuing to prove things we could not prove
saddam only needed “al queda” after he was out of power
the only intel used was “zarqawi went to iraq on one leg” which is code i am not going to reveal…i stated not to use it…but cheney always put the intel field in the cross hairs by revealing code as truth and then using it against us
cheney only wins if iraq goes back to sanctions or if he runs the war…that strategy is still up for a decision
and those who attack me…DON’T KNOW ANYTHING!!!
after 6 years my phone has finally stopped ringing for no reason early every morning knowing i had been up all night in pain going to the bathroom and just maybe getting a little sleep out of exhaustion…my phone would ring day and night from unknown callers
oh, let me think…for the past 6 years…i have had SLEEP DEPREVATION, LACK OF MEDICAL CARE….I WAS NOT ALLOWED TO SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION UNLESS AN ORGAN WAS FAILING and i have a letter to that effect…BECAUSE CHENEY WAS NOT TORTURING ANY AMERICAN CITIZEN
so, u all have mental disorder because u believe the news and movies
Gwen, thank you for your excellent illustration of my point. Surely you do not believe that the strong support of Israel by the Christian right in this country represents an outpouring of love for the Jews. Jill’s earlier post is correct. Conservative Christian thought is dominated by dispensational premillenialists hoping for the rapture and armageddon. The existence of Israel and restoration of the temple is critical to their theology. They are now busily attempting to identify the antichrist, except for John Hagee, who apparently clings to the more traditional view that that position remains occupied by the pope. Although Dick Cheney may have pushed the invasion of Iraq based upon old fashioned avaricious capitalism, George Bush was influenced by religious considerations as well, namely his role in the preparations for the second coming. His views actually parallel those of Ronald Reagan, who also spoke on more than one occasion about the role of Israel in apocalyptic prophecy. This is a major reason that religious conservatives have flocked to the Republican Party over the past thirty years. (The other major reason relates to racial attitudes.) Why do you think that Liberty University has banned the student Democratic club from campus?
If you wish to debate these issues, I certainly welcome the discussion. If, however, you are merely offended because you hold identical biblical views, or remain in denial concerning the influence of fundamentalism on Middle East policy, then I expect your response will be more vitriol. The ball’s back in your court.
I thought Gog and Magog was a cartoon based on a breakfast cereal, I’m just an ignorant heretic though
Gog & Magog … sounds like Star Wars, which BTW is a much better fairy tale than the big-black-boring-book of death and dismemberment.
Anonymously Yours
I’m not sure what you’re getting at
in my defense though I’m frequently not sure what people are getting at
I realize I’m not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition but English were never mine goodest subject
C.Everett Kook 1, May 26, 2009 at 1:25 am
if one cannot understand that Saddam had no means with which to finish a war he started in 1991 then one has no common sense
and if one believes that Saddam invaded Kuwait in order to start a war with the US then one has no common sense
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Sir, correct me if I am wrong. But did not that conflict happen in the GeoI watch? Did you not see an article in the Washington Post where his family, that would be the Bushes owned 10 acres of prime Kuwaitee Oil property? Humm…..wonder why we felt the need to set right a wrong….do you think he was trying to make a wrong a right because his daddy had his property seized while a US Senator who voted against the 2nd WW? Oh, ya think he had a conflict in voting on that subject? Maybe? Maybe not.
Rats, aAnd to think that living in Sherbrooke, Québec I am only ten minutes away from Magog, incredible!
if one cannot understand that Saddam had no means with which to finish a war he started in 1991 then one has no common sense
and if one believes that Saddam invaded Kuwait in order to start a war with the US then one has no common sense
ravin loon a tick?
Remember Valarie Plame. Don’t even let that cross your little ole selective bred brain.