Interesting. Long though! http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/26/1450204&mode=thread&tid=25
What really upsets a lot of Americans is how liberals mock Bush by saying that he's "inspired by God" or "doing God's work". Implicit in this mockery is contempt for Christianity and an attempt to paint Bush as a religious extremist.
Why is it called "Democracy Now" and they oppose trying to spread democracy in the Middle East? I always wondered that listening to 90.1.
Well, first of all, these are Bush's words, or at least something close to them. Just because liberals echo them to highlight them as errors of policy and judgment doesn't mean they're mocking him. He is entitled to his beliefs, even liberals know this. Contempt for Christianity? Nope. Maybe it's just you trying to paint all liberals as Christianity haters. Painting Bush as a religious extremist? Yes! Holy crap, I agree with TJ on something! But unfortunately it's offset by the fact that as much as liberals try to paint Bush a Christian zealot, conservatives try and paint liberal figureheads as being heathen non-believers/terrorist supporters/unpatriotic/etc/blahblahblah.
Not if you don't see his actions as Christian. Or if you see a lack of true respect of religions other than the Abrahamic ones (or even recognition) by Christians.
Maybe they just have a different view of what consititutes democracy. Can you see why some people feel like turning Falljua into a free-fire zone and leveling it, and then giving Bechtel Corporation 50 zillion dollars to pave it over into a parking lot and putting a ballot box in the center isn't democratic. You guys need to get real. Junior high schools have elections. Does that make them democracies? I'm not saying this is what I believe, I'm just saying that reasonable minds can differ;
I don't have the time to read the whole thing, but I am concerned about if/what Bush considers his 'mandate' . In the first half of his article (all that I can read now), Hersh doesn't really prove much to me. I don't have much of a problem with hunting terrorists. In some instances, it's a necessity. Just the nature of the enemy. He claims that the insurgency was all planned before the war. Then he mentions how the 2-3 man teams have grown to 10-15. Was this evolution planned? Seems to me to be indicative of a natural, unplanned evolution. That's as far as I got...
What is implicit is that mocking of Bush is not mocking Christianity as a whole. Here is someone who claims he is doing the God's work, and that Jesus Christ is his role model, and then acts contrary to the actions of his role model, but still claims that he is doing God's work.
I don't think they oppose democracy at all. I think they oppose forcing democracy by pointing a gun at someone and say you will be democratic or you will die. Of course the Whitehouse at one point said they weren't in favor of elections at a certain time for the PLO because it would strengthen Arafat's hold. That isn't supporting democracy. That is wanting to get a leader that you like, and being against democracy if it won't turn out the way you want it. I could turn the question around and ask why would the Whitehouse oppose democracy when they claim they want to spread it?
Contempt for Christianity?!?!? Hardly Contempt for a politician who wears his Christianity on his sleeve and uses it as a mallet to bash his opponents....while at the same time breaking the Ten Commandments every chance he gets??? Definitely!