Gog and Magog?

An article by James A. Haught for the Council for Secular Humanism recounts a conversation between George W. Busch and French President Jacques Chirac when the White House was assembling its “coalition of the willing” in preparation for the Iraq invasion.

Bush apparently told Chirac that “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The 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.”

Err, Gog and Magog? Turns out that the Old Testament book of Ezekiel contains two chapters (38 and 39) in which God rages against Gog and Magog, mysterious forces menacing Israel. God vows to “turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,” and slaughter them ruthlessly. In the New Testament, they show up again in the book of Revelation, this time gathering nations for battle, “and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

Think of that. In the eyes of The President of the United States, the war against Iraq was nothing less than a religious war based on Biblical prophesies of agents of the apocalypse.

Holy shit right? I mean HOLY SHIT!

The conversation between Bush and Chirac is reported in an article in the French-language Swiss newspaper, Le Matin Dimanche as well as France’s La Liberte. Canada’s Toronto Star has reported the story but the only US newspaper to cover it so far is The Charleston Gazette out of West Virginia.

(The article from the Toronto Star can be found here . The article from the Charleston Gazette can be found here but it should be noted that it was also written by James Haught and is therefore not an additional source. Further it was posted as an opinion column. I was unable to locate the articles in La Liberte , possibly because I don’t speak French. How ‘bout that dear readers? Dig the work I do so you don’t have to!)

Chirac himself confirms the conversation in a long interview with French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice, who relates the story in his book, Si Vous le Répétez, Je Démentirai (If You Repeat it, I Will Deny), released in March by the publisher Plon. ( Here is the link to the book on Amazon’s French site.)

I don’t care how deep or shallow your religious convictions are, this is clearly fringe-element stuff. Did you think that we invaded Iraq to find and destroy their weapons of mass destruction or did you think that we were fulfilling biblical prophesy?

This is not the first piece of evidence that the Bushies were pursuing religious madness. This 2005 article from the UK’s Guardian details conversations that Busch had with the Palestinian Foreign Minister in which he said "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."

God talks to George W. Bush. Or he’s hearing voices. Either way…

Earlier this year GQ Magazine broke a story that revealed that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used to present daily intelligence briefings to Bush that featured apocalyptic bible verses side-by-side with battle photographs from Iraq. Here are some examples of the cover sheets of those reports . (Click each image to embiggen...)








It is becoming clear that the war in Iraq was about one gang of religious fundamentalists bent on destroying another gang of religious fundamentalists. These guys are all far-side nut jobs who, getting off on a John Wayne vibe and gobbling up freedom fries, led us into a war that didn’t have to happen and cost the lives of over four thousand Americans and the lives of over 100,000 Iraqi civilians .

I’m just having such a hard time swallowing this. It is so outrageous, so…outlandish that I can hardly believe that it’s true. I keep thinking back to an earlier paragraph in this post where I said that this is “clearly fringe element stuff” but I wonder, is it really?

Because to me, this is bat-shit crazy medieval mythology. You would have to be completely nuts to believe in any of it much less act upon it as the leader of the free world. Gog and Magog? Are you serious?

Apparently Bush was.

Glimpses Behind the Curtain

ABC News reported yesterday that coded references to New Testament bible passages are being inscribed on high powered rifle sights that are being supplied to the US military by a Michigan company called Trijicon .

One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."

Other references include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as "the light of the world." John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads, "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Trijicon, who had $100 million in government contracts in 2008, won a $33 million contract last year and landed a $660 million contract to supply the Marine Corps with sights in 2005, sees nothing wrong with the practice.

Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, said the inscriptions "have always been there" and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is "not Christian."

Damn those “not Christians.”

Every once in a while we get a peek behind the curtain, a glimpse of what the invasion of Iraq was really all about. I’ve documented some of those glimpses here at TMUOTF…

Glimpse #1: In August of last year, I posted about George W. Bush’s efforts to rally the “coalition of the willing” for the Iraq invasion, and particularly French President Jacques Chirac by invoking the menacing Old Testament characters Gog and Magog. Money quote from Bush to Chirac: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The 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.”

Glimpse #2: In 2005, the UK’s Guardian reported on a conversation between Bush and the Palestinian Foreign Minister Minister in which he said "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."

Glimpse # 3: Also recounted in my August post was the GQ article from June of last year in which it was revealed that Donald Rumsfeld used to present daily intelligence briefings to Bush that featured apocalyptic bible verses side-by-side with battle photographs from Iraq. Stuff like this:



Glimpse #4: Rifle scopes engraved with biblical codes.

Religious dudes waging religious war against religious dudes. On YOUR behalf no less!