God Told Me To Invade Iraq

By Rupert Cornwell

08 October, 2005
The Independent

President George Bush has claimed he was told by God
to invade Iraq and attack Osama bin Laden's stronghold
of Afghanistan as part of a divine mission to bring
peace to the Middle East, security for Israel, and a
state for the Palestinians.

George Bush believes he is on a mission from God,
according to the politician Nabil Shaath. Photograph:
Charles Dharapak/AP

The President made the assertion during his first
meeting with Palestinian leaders in June 2003,
according to a BBC series which will be broadcast this
month.

The revelation comes after Mr Bush launched an
impassioned attack yesterday in Washington on Islamic
militants, likening their ideology to that of
Communism, and accusing them of seeking to "enslave
whole nations" and set up a radical Islamic empire
"that spans from Spain to Indonesia". In the
programmeElusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, which
starts on Monday, the former Palestinian foreign
minister Nabil Shaath says Mr Bush told him and
Mahmoud Abbas, former prime minister and now
Palestinian President: "I'm driven with a mission from
God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those
terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God
would tell me, 'George go and end the tyranny in
Iraq,' and I did."

And "now again", Mr Bush is quoted as telling the two,
"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.' And by
God, I'm gonna do it."

Mr Abbas remembers how the US President told him he
had a "moral and religious obligation" to act. The
White House has refused to comment on what it terms a
private conversation. But the BBC account is anything
but implausible, given how throughout his presidency
Mr Bush, a born-again Christian, has never hidden the
importance of his faith.

From the outset he has couched the "global war on
terror" in quasi-religious terms, as a struggle
between good and evil. Al-Qa'ida terrorists are
routinely described as evil-doers. For Mr Bush, the
invasion of Iraq has always been part of the struggle
against terrorism, and he appears to see himself as
the executor of the divine will.

He told Bob Woodward - whose 2004 book, Plan of
Attack, is the definitive account of the
administration's road to war in Iraq - that after
giving the order to invade in March 2003, he walked in
the White House garden, praying "that our troops be
safe, be protected by the Almighty". As he went into
this critical period, he told Mr Woodward, "I was
praying for strength to do the Lord's will.

"I'm surely not going to justify war based upon God.
Understand that. Nevertheless, in my case, I pray that
I will be as good a messenger of His will as possible.
And then of course, I pray for forgiveness."

Another telling sign of Mr Bush's religion was his
answer to Mr Woodward's question on whether he had
asked his father - the former president who refused to
launch a full-scale invasion of Iraq after driving
Saddam Hussein from Kuwait in 1991 - for advice on
what to do.

The current President replied that his earthly father
was "the wrong father to appeal to for advice ...
there is a higher father that I appeal to".

The same sense of mission permeated his speech at the
National Endowment of Democracy yesterday. Its main
news was Mr Bush's claim that Western security
services had thwarted 10 planned attacks by al-Qa'ida
since 11 September 2001, three of them against
mainland US.

More striking though was his unrelenting portrayal of
radical Islam as a global menace, which only the
forces of freedom - led by the US - could repel. It
was delivered at a moment when Mr Bush's domestic
approval ratings are at their lowest ebb, in large
part because of the war in Iraq, in which 1,950 US
troops have died, with no end in sight.

It came amid continuing violence on the ground, nine
days before the critical referendum on the new
constitution that offers perhaps the last chance of
securing a unitary and democratic Iraq. "The militants
believe that controlling one country will rally the
Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate
governments in the region" and set up a radical empire
stretching from Spain to Indonesia, he said.

The insurgents' aim was to "enslave whole nations and
intimidate the world". He portrayed Islamic radicals
as a single global movement, from the Middle East to
Chechnya and Bali and the jungles of the Philippines.

He rejected claims that the US military presence in
Iraq was fuelling terrorism: 11 September 2001
occurred long before American troops set foot in Iraq
- and Russia's opposition to the invasion did not stop
terrorists carrying out the Beslan atrocity in which
300 children died.

Mr Bush also accused Syria and Iran of supporting
radical groups. They "have a long history of
collaboration with terrorists and they deserve no
patience". The US, he warned, "makes no distinction
between those who commit acts of terror and those who
support and harbour them because they're equally as
guilty of murder".

"Wars are not won without sacrifice and this war will
require more sacrifice, more time and more resolve,"
Mr Bush declared. But progress was being made in Iraq,
and, he proclaimed: "We will keep our nerve and we
will win that victory."

© 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.