Now
Available!
Dime's
Worth of Difference:
Beyond the
Lesser of Two Evils
Order Here!
Today's
Stories
September 10,
2004
David Domke
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
September 9,
2004
Joe Bageant
Karaoke
Night in Bush's America
Ed Kinane
Abducted in Baghdad
Peter Bohmer
The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future
Todd May
The Emerging Case for a Single-State Solution
Jeremy Scahill
The New York Model: Indymedia and the Text Message Jihad
Joshua Frank
Green House Party Gasses
Fran Shor
The Crisis in Public Dissent: When Protest is Considered a Terrorist
Act
Patrick Cockburn
Welcome
to the Dirtiest City in the World: Despair in Baghdad
Website of
the Day
Liberty Street Protest: No to War at Ground Zero
September 8,
2004
Patrick Cockburn
This
Doesn't Smell Like Victory: A War on Two Fronts in Iraq
Dave Lindorff
Bush Confuses; Kerry Mute: Spinning 1000 Dead
Bulent Gokay
Russian and Chechnia After Beslan
Lisa Viscidi
Land Reform and Conflict in Guatemala
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Byrd's Eye View
Mike Whitney
Afghanistan: American's Drug Colony
Stan Goff
Body
Count: 1001
Website of
the Day
Bush and the Love Doctors
Sex,
Drugs & the Blues!
Serpents in the Garden
CounterPunch's
Sizzling New Book on Culture and Sex is Now Available
Click here to purchase
September 7,
2004
Diane Christian
Hostage Tactics: a Game of Mortal Poker
Joshua Frank
Greens
Unravel from Within
Patrick Cockburn
Fallujah
Erupts Again: US Death Toll in Iraq Nears 1000
Ron Jacobs
Bush and Putin: "We're Not Girlie Men"
Chris Floyd
Cry Havoc: Bush's Own Personal Janjaweed
Dr. Carol Wolman
No Blood for Oil at Paul Bunyan Day Parade
John Ross
The
Politics of Darkness North / South
September 6,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
An
Anti-Labor Day That Lives in Infamy: How Many Democrats Voted
For Taft-Hartley?
Ralph Nader
The
Cruel Legacy of Taft-Hartley: a Labor Day Call for Rights for
Working People
Lee Sustar
What's Driving the Attack on Pensions?
Kathleen and
Bill Christison
Dual
Loyalties: the Bush Necons and Israel
September 4-5,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
Elephants
and Gramsci
Ted Honderich
The
Way Things Are
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The
Holy Empire: Who We Are and What We Do
Douglas Valentine
What the World Should Know About Guantanamo
Patrick Cockburn
New Iraqi Police State Flexes Its Muscles
Gary Leupp
Neo Cons Under Fire
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: the Hempstead T-Shirt
William A.
Cook
The
Day of the Lemming
Dave Zirin
Kobe Bryant and the Price of Freedom
John Chuckman
The Day the World Ended
Karyn Strickler
God Save the Endangered Species Act
Vanessa Jones
Bad Day with an Ikea Cup
Mike Whitney
Kerry: the "Better" War Candidate
Mark Donham
Dear John (Kerry): Start Explaining and Fast
Mickey Z.
McBypass Nation: Feeling Clinton's Pain
Alan Farago
Can the Everglades be Fixed?
Poets' Basement
Landau and Albert
September 3,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Jesus Told Him Where to Bomb
Rahul Mahajan
Bush's RNC Speech: an Annotated Response
Carl Estabrook
The
Book of Slaughter and Forgetting
Joshua Frank
The Florida of the Northwest: Oregon Dems Sabotage Nader Again
Gary Leupp
Music to My Ears: Sunday's March
James Hollander
Deja Vu in Manhattan: Assisted Political Suicide?
Mark Engler
Republicans
Among Us: a Week at the RNC, Inside and Out
Jesse Sharkey
Making Students and Teachers Pay for the Crisis in Education
Jane Stillwater
Calling the Cops on Your Own Kid
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: the Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
September 2,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part 3: More Pricks Than Kicks
Max Gimble
Et Tu, Menchu? Extrajudicial Killings and Clandestine Graves
in Guatemala
James Petras
President Chavez and the Referendum: Myths and Realities
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush and the Afghan Electoral Model: "If They Want to Vote
Twice, Let Them"
Todd Chretien & Jessie
Muldoon
Will the Democrats Expel Zell Miller?
Jack Random
Spite and Venom Day: the Turncoat and the Profiteer
Alan Maass
The Real Vietnam
Christa Allen
Contre Bush
Website of
the Day
[Redacted]
September 1,
2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Stench of Doom
Kathleen and Bill Christison
Poor Larry Franklin
Dave Lindorff
Kerry's Litmus Test
Josh Frank
Protest in White: Not All of New York Rises Up
John L. Hess
Moles, Scoops and Flip Flops
Mike Whitney
Deconstructing Arnold
Jack Random
Kindergarten Night at the RNC
Andrew Wilson
War on the Pachyderms: Why Do Elephants Hate Us?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: Part Two: Mark His Words
August 31,
2004
Joseph Nevins
Escapism
and Global Apartheid: The Dominican Republic & the NYTs
Matt Vidal
Beyond
Bush's Rhetoric on the Economy
Neve Gordon
Kerry and the Middle East
Dave Lindorff
Bush
the Peace Candidate?
Mike Whitney
NPR Leads the Charge for War Against Iran
Jack Random
Opening Night: Playing the War Card
Jeffrey St.
Clair
High
Plains Grifter: the Life and Crimes of George W. Bush (Part One)
CounterPunch Photo of the Day
Pete Seeger in NYC
August 30,
2004
Justin Podhur
The
Disappeared Mayor
Shaun Joseph
The
Hypocrites at TheNaderbasher.com
Mike Whitney
Israeli Moles in the Pentagon: What More Could They Possibly
Want?
Ron Jacobs
Live, From New York: the Majority of Protesters Claimed No Candidate
David Lindorff
Sunday in Manhattan: the Sound of Marchin', Chargin' Feet, Boy
Dave Zirin
USA Basketball: The Team White America Loved to Hate
Sam Husseini
Israeli Spying on the US: a Long History
August 28 /
29, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Zombies
for Kerry
Patrick Cockburn
Najaf Ceasefire Good for Iraq, But Weakens Allawi and US
Ray McGovern
Blowing Smoke on Intelligence
Dr. Juan Romagoza
From El Salvador to Abu Ghraib: Reflections of Torture Survivor
Ray Hanania
An Israeli Spy in the Pentagon? Ridiculous!
Fred Gardner
Eddie Lepp Busted by DEA: Facing Life for Growing Medical Pot
Diane Christian
Big Men: the Better Leader Lets You Live
William S. Lind
The Desert Fox
Paul D'Amato
The Left Takes a Dive for Kerry
Joshua Frank
Greens at the Crossroads
Mickey Z.
Media Declares War on Anti-War Protests
Winslow T. Wheeler
Sen. McCain's Pork Chops: an Exchange
Justin E.H.
Smith
The New Age Racket and the Left
Thomas St. John
Burning Slaves at the Stake: On "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God"
Ali Tonak
Help the NYPD?
Mark Engler
New York Says "No"
Justin Felux
Haiti: the Attica of the Americas
Poets' Basement
Gelman, Albert, Ford and Hamod
August 27,
2004
Gary Leupp
Neocon
Musings
Robin Cook
The
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Diane Christian
Disarming
Michael Donnelly
Situational Democracy: the Show Me the Green Party?
Jack Random
4F and Other Heroes: an Army of War Resisters
Mike Ferner
"To the Swift Boats!"
Mazin Qumsiyeh
7000 Palestinian Political Prisoners
Veronza Bowers, Jr.
"You Won't Be Leaving Tomorrow"
August 26,
2004
M. Shahid Alam
The
Clash Thesis: a Failing Ideology?
Diane Christian
War
Rules: Bush is No Sun Tzu
Derek Seidman
"They're As Bad As Wal-Mart:" Starbucks Workers Get
Organized
David Lindorff
Court to RNC Protesters: Drop the Rally
Christopher
Brauchli
Signs of Dissent: the Bush in the Bubble
Stew Albert
Reporting Suspicious Activity
Mark Donham
Judgement in Athens: Give the Koreans Their Day in Court
Saul Landau
Pinochet:
the Al Capone of the Southern Cone
Website of
the Day
The Kerry 527 Ad You'll Never See
August 25,
2004
Amelia Peltz
Can
I Have 9.8 Seconds of Your Time?
Noah Leavitt
Defining and Redefining Torture
Ron Jacobs
Takin' It to the Streets: It's Not About the Election, It's About
Democracy
James Brooks
Coronado Crosses the Jordan
Akiva Eldar
How to Win the Jewish Vote: Turn Gaza into a "Mini-Afghanistan"
Gemma Araneta
Chavez's New Brand of Populism
Philip Cryan
Uribe's Boys: the Death Squads of Colombia
CounterPunch Wire
Cheney Opens the Closet Door
August 24,
2004
Jeremy Scahill
John
Kerry: the Warchurian Candidate
Gary Leupp
"We
Want Them to Go Away"
David Domke
God
Willing: an Echoing Press and Political Fundamentalism
William Loren Katz
The Meaning of Hugo Chávez: Black and Indian Power in
Venezuela
Jonah Gindin
With Chavez? Reading the International Private Media
Fran Schor
Denying Atrocities: From Vietnam to Fallujah
Joe Bageant
Driving
on the Bones of God
Website of the Day
The Great America Lockdown: a Primer for the RNC
August 23,
2004
Winslow Wheeler
Don't
Mind If I Do: Porkbarrel and the War on Terror
John Pilger
Bush
May Be the Lesser Evil
Stan Goff
Swift
Boat Dogfight
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Notes
from the West Bank: Build, Demolish, Rebuild
Mike Whitney
The Unraveling of Afghanistan
William Blum
Brave
New World of Iraqi Sovereignty
Ralph Nader
A Letter to the Washington Post: a Shameful and Unsavory Editorial
August 21 /
22, 2004
Cockburn /
St. Clair
"They
Want Blood:" The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on
Drugs
Landau / Hassen
Failing
the Mission? Form a Commission
Brian Cloughley
The
Bush Team in Iraq: Moral Cowardice, as Practiced by Experts
Josh Frank
Nader as David Duke? The ADL Wants You to Think So
Mike Whitney
Reincarnating Mengele: the Torture Doctors of Abu Ghraib
Ron Jacobs
Day Labor Blues
Mickey Z.
Shooting at Whales: 40 Years After Tonkin
Fred Gardner
Dr. Wolman Comes Out: The Cannabis Consultants
Dave Zirin
Uprising in Athens: Iraqi Soccer Team Gives Bush the Boot
Josh Saxe
Witnessing Police Brutality in LA
Yanar Mohammed
Letter from Baghdad: a Democracy of Killings and Bombings
Helen Williams
Ali's Story: a Taste of Reality from Baghdad
Michael Donnelly
Elemental and NaturalForests, Fire and Recovery
Elizabeth Schulte
The Crisis in Affordable Housing
Poets' Basement
Adler, Albert, Virgil, Ford and Krieger
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
September 10, 2004
Keeper of the
Faith?
God's
Will, According to the Bush Administration
By
DAVID DOMKE
In his address to Republican Party delegates
and the nation last Thursday, George W. Bush used the words freedom
or liberty, in some form, 34 times. Say this for the president:
he can hammer home a message. Among these instances was this
declaration: "I believe that America is called to lead the
cause of freedom in a new century. I believe that millions in
the Middle East plead in silence for their liberty. I believe
that given the chance, they will embrace the most honorable form
of government ever devised by man. I believe all these things
because freedom is not America's gift to the world, it is the
Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world."
These words both lay bare and obscure underlying truths about
the administration. Regarding the former, Bush's linkage of freedom
and liberty with divine wishes is indicative of how central a
Christian fundamentalist worldview is to his conception of the
struggle against Islamic terrorists. At the same time, emphasis
on these values masks the reality that the administration is
determined to define what counts as freedom and liberty and who
will have the privilege to experience it.
An omnipresent consideration
for Christian fundamentalists is the "Great Commission"
biblical mandate, in the book of Matthew, of "go therefore
and make disciples of all the nations." The felt responsibility
to live out this command, both locally and globally, has become
intertwined in the eyes of the Religious Right with support for
the principles of political freedom and liberty. In particular,
the individualized religious liberty present in the United States
(particularly available historically for European-American Protestants,
of course) is something that fundamentalists long to extend to
other cultures and nations. In the 1980s, fundamentalist preacher
and leader Jerry Falwell argued that the dissemination of Christianity
could not be carried out if other nations were communist-a perspective
which provided a good reason to support a strong U.S. military,
conservative foreign policy, and the spreading of individual
freedoms. Falwell's perspective on the 2004 presidential matchup
is unequivocal: In the July 1 issue of his email newsletter and
on his website, Falwell declared, "For conservative people
of faith, voting for principle this year means voting for the
re-election of George W. Bush. The alternative, in my mind, is
simply unthinkable." He added, "I believe it is the
responsibility of every political conservative, every evangelical
Christian, every pro-life Catholic, every traditional Jew, every
Reagan Democrat, and everyone in between to get serious about
re-electing President Bush."
The certitude present in Bush's
rhetoric and in the support for Bush by Falwell (and by other
Religious Right leaders such as Pat Robertson and Gary Bauer)
is emblematic of fundamentalists' confidence that their understanding
of the world provides what religion scholar Bruce Lawrence terms
"mandated  universalist norms" that cross cultural
and historical context and therefore, as the biblical command
makes clear, are to be shared with all peoples. Indeed, Harvard
professor Harvey Cox argues that "Fundamentalists not only
insist on preserving the fundamentals of the faith, but envision
a world in which these fundamentals would be more widely accepted
and practiced. They want not only to 'keep the faith,' but to
change the world so the faith can be kept more easily"
(emphasis added to Cox's words). The administration's unrelenting
emphasis on freedom and liberty-which allows them to emphasize
values with both religious and political heritages-has functioned
as the centerpiece of what theologian R. Scott Appleby has termed
the administration's offering of "a theological version
of Manifest Destiny." This twenty-first century adaptation
of manifest destiny differs little from earlier American versions:
the goal remains to vanquish any who do not willingly adopt the
norms and values of white, religiously conservative Protestants.
Ultimately, whether the president's
public religiosity is a sham, serving merely as a rhetorical
cover for the administration's neo-conservative or corporate
agenda is a moot point. All that matters politically is that
the public perceives Bush's religious discourse as genuine. A
mid-June Time poll found that 54 percent of likely U.S.
voters said they would describe Bush "as a man of strong
religious faith" (only 7 percent said the same for John
Kerry). To be clear, the perception of Bush is the one that Americans-including
many who are not overly religious themselves-tend to interpret
in favorable terms, particularly in challenging times. The administration
has capitalized upon this public outlook. Since the terrorist
attacks of September 11, Bush has consistently claimed that the
freedom and liberty that he seeks to spread is not partisan or
nationalistic in nature but rather God's universal gospel-so
do not challenge the administration. For example, in his address
before Congress and a national television audience nine days
after the terrorist attacks, Bush declared, "The course
of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom
and fear, justice and cruelty have always been at war, and we
know that God is not neutral between them." Similarly, in
the 2003 State of the Union address, with the conflict in Iraq
imminent, he declared, "Americans are a free people, who
know that freedom is the right of every person and the future
of every nation. The liberty we prize is not America's gift to
the world, it is God's gift to humanity." Bush's words last
week were nearly identical. These are not requests for divine
favor; they are declarations of divine wishes.
From this position, only short
theological and rhetorical steps are required to justify U.S.
actions. For instance, at a December 2003 press conference, Bush
said, "I believe, firmly believe-and you've heard me say
this a lot, and I say it a lot because I truly believe it-that
freedom is the Almighty God's gift to every person, every man
and woman who lives in this world. That's what I believe. And
the arrest of Saddam Hussein changed the equation in Iraq. Justice
was being delivered to a man who defied that gift from the Almighty
to the people of Iraq." In essence, the administration has
transformed Bush's "Either you are with us, or you are with
the terrorists" policy to "Either you are with us,
or you are against God." The Bush administration, therefore,
has offered a dangerous combination: the president claims to
know God's wishes and presides over a global landscape
in which the administration believes that it can act upon such
beliefs without compunction. Indeed, the administration's decision
for war in Iraq is wholly congruent with religious fundamentalists'
willingness, in the words of scholar Harold Perkin, to impose
"what they take to be God's will upon other people"
because others are viewed as certain to benefit.
To the great misfortune of
American democracy and the global public, such a view is indistinguishable
from that of the terrorists it is fighting. One is hard pressed
to see how the perspective of Osama bin Laden, that he and his
followers are delivering God's wishes for the United States (and
others who share western customs and policies), is much different
from Bush's perspective that the United States is delivering
God's wishes to the Taliban or Iraq. Clearly, flying airplanes
into buildings in order to kill innocent people is an indefensible
immoral activity. So too, some traditional allies told the Bush
administration, is an unprovoked pre-emptive invasion of a sovereign
nation. In both instances, the aggression manifested in a form
that was available to the leaders. Fundamentalism in the White
House is a difference in degree, not kind, from fundamentalism
exercised in dark, damp caves. Democracy is always the loser.
The will of the public, allies, or the United Nations is meaningless
to an American president certain of the will of God
While Christian conservatives
and hard-line neo-conservatives may see the developments after
September 11 in a positive light (after all, one might say that
God and the United States have been given a larger piece of the
planet to play with), all Americans should be leery of any government
that merges religiosity into political ends. Noble ideals such
as freedom and liberty are clearly worth pursuing, but the administration
has promoted these concepts with its left hand while using its
right hand to treat others-including many U.S. citizens-in an
authoritarian, dismissive manner. Unfortunately, the Bush administration
is the latest entry in a historical record which shows that beliefs
and claims about divine leading are no guarantee that one will
exercise power in a consistently liberating, egalitarian manner.
David Domke is an Associate Professor at the University
of Washington. This essay draws upon his arguments in God
Willing? Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the "War
on Terror" and the Echoing Press, published August 2004
by Pluto Press and available in the United States through the
University of Michigan Press. He can be reached at: domke@u.washington.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for August 7 / 8, 2004
James Petras
The
Anatomy of "Terror Experts": Meet the Mandarins of
Abu Ghraib
Fred Gardner
Run
Ricky Run: Football, Pot and Pain
Justin Delacour
Anti-Chavez Pollsters Panic: Fix Numbers; Reinvent Venezuela
Brian Cloughley
Persecuted by All; Supported by None: Who Would Be A Kurd?
Joshua Frank
The
Outsider: a Talk with Ralph Nader
Iain A. Boal
On "Shame": Warmed-Over Orientalism and Racist Projection
Chris Floyd
All About Eve: Open Season on Women in DC and Rome
Andrew Fenton
Fighting for Democracy and Justice in Haiti
Aseem Shrivastava
Saga of an Anguished Afghan
Neil Corbett
See Cuba: Sometimes a Cigar is Just a Cigar, Mr. Bush
Carol Miller
/ Forrest Hill
Rigged Convention; Divided Party: How David Cobb Won with Only
12% of the Vote
Tarek Milleron
Breaking the Principled Voter
Donald Macintyre
The
Battle of Najaf
Ron Jacobs
Spirits of The Dead: Why I Love My Petty Bourgeois Tendencies
Mickey Z.
Kid
Gavilan's Grave: Propaganda Scores a TKO
Poets' Basement
Adler, Ford and Albert
Keep
CounterPunch Alive:
Make
a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online!
home
/ subscribe
/ about us / books
/ archives / search
/ links /
|