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/CONT/

The records suggest Bush skipped out on the Guard for about a year. 
(And during that time he had failed to submit to an annual physical 
and lost his flight status.) A campaign spokesperson said Bush recalled 
doing duty in Alabama and "coming back to Houston and doing duty." 
But Bush never provided any real proof he had. Asked by a reporter if 
he remembered what work he had done in Alabama, he said, "No, I really 
don't." A fair assumption was that he had gamed the system and 
avoided a year of service, before wiggling out of the Guard nearly a 
year before his time was up. It looked as if he had served four, not 
six years.  

When he enlisted in the Texas Air Guard, Bush had signed a pledge 
stating he would complete his pilot training and then "return to my 
unit and fulfill my obligation to the utmost of my ability." Instead, 
he received flight training -- at the government's expense -- and then 
cut out on his unit. He had not been faithful to the Guard. He had not 
kept this particular charge.  

The problem with masks is that, after wearing one for a very long time, 
a person might reach a level of self-delusion that tells them their reality 
is the mask itself, and not what lies underneath. Bush has been skittering 
around the fact that he went AWOL during his term of military service for 
over three years now. The spectacle on the Abraham Lincoln suggests 
he has finally managed to convince himself that he did, in fact, serve 
the military of his country with honor and in accordance with the oath 
he took. Either that, or he is so utterly without shame as to be beyond 
the scope of normal human understanding.  

Neither choice is particularly palatable, and never mind the inherent 
danger in a civilian commander so energetically equating himself with 
the military. Americans don't have a war leader anymore. They have a 
leader who is war personified. The fact that this personification comes 
at the expense of fact and truth is merely an accent in the symphony.  

Another mask was donned by Bush on the deck of that aircraft carrier, 
one whose implications are far more dire and disturbing. Bush was there 
to tell the world that combat operations in Iraq had ceased. He did not 
go so far as to declare victory, as such a declaration would have 
required, under the Geneva Convention, the release of POWs and the 
withdrawal of American forces. The banner hanging across the control 
tower -- "Mission Accomplished" -- said all that needed to be said.  

In his remarks, Bush closed with a paraphrasing of the Book of Isaiah: 
"In the words of the prophet Isaiah, 'To the captives, 'come out,' and 
to those in darkness, 'be free,''"  

This was a quotation from Chapter 61 of Isaiah, the very book Jesus 
Christ used when proclaiming that Isaiah's prophesies of the Messiah 
had come true. Using this passage from Isaiah, Jesus presented 
himself as the Son of God in Nazareth. Thus it is told in Luke, 
Chapter 4, Verses 16- 22:  

"And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went 
to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he 
stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet 
Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to 
preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to 
the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty 
those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." 
And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; 
and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began 
to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your
hearing."" 

Under normal circumstances, we could write this off as a President 
reaching for hopeful Biblical language to frame a particular argument. 
This has been done before, by many American leaders in many situations. 
In this case, taken on the political surface, we could see a President 
using the Bible to define the latest reason for war in Iraq -- the 
'liberation' of the people -- in the conspicuous absence of the oft-
repeated reason that started the war -- the presence of mass 
destruction weapons. A further analysis of George W. Bush himself, 
however, leads to some serious questions.  

The passage of Isaiah referenced by Jesus at Nazareth, and by Bush on 
the Abraham Lincoln, is part of a larger collection of verses known as 
the "Servant Songs." The specific verse used by Bush, out of Isaiah 61, 
is most important; it is widely accepted by both Christian and Jewish 
scholars as announcing the Messiah. For Christians, the Messiah is 
Jesus, and so this passage refers specifically to Him and His coming. 
The fact that Jesus Himself used this passage to announce His presence 
further confirms this. Bush's reading of this passage suggests the 
possibility that he believes this coming, for the second time, has 
arrived.  

It has been oft-reported that Bush witnessed the attacks of 9/11 and 
came to believe that God Himself, and not Scalia and the rest, put him 
into the Presidency for the sole purpose of pursuing this war against 
terrorism. It has likewise been oft-reported that Bush is an evangelical 
Christian of the vigorous Billy Graham stripe. We have witnessed the 
failure of every rationalization for making war on Iraq -- the WMDs, 
the terrorist connections -- and are left now with the rhetorical 
argument that we did the whole thing to 'save' the Iraqi people. 
Ergo, Bush positioned himself on the deck of that aircraft carrier 
as a savior.  

We are talking about a man who wears masks for the sake of political 
opportunism, and to survive moments when he has to address himself 
in the bathroom mirror. Does this newest mask have George W. Bush 
taking on the mantle of Jesus Christ, Savior and Redeemer?  

Here is a man so steeped in self-denial that he can shunt aside his own 
shameful history in order to pretend he is on the same moral level as 
the soldiers he abandoned when his time of service came due. Here is a 
man intent upon making war on as much of the Muslim world as he can 
put his hands around, while wrapping around himself the image and 
prophesies of Jesus Christ. What is next? Will we see George W. Bush 
standing before the American people saying "Today this scripture has 
been fulfilled in your hearing"?  

George W. Bush, master of denial. George W. Bush, wearer of masks. 
George W. Bush, soldier for Christ.  

George W. Bush, Christ Himself?  

Oh dear God, let there be light. 


(c): t r u t h o u t 2003

                              -==-

Source: Truthout - http://truthout.org/docs_03/050503A.shtml


Cheers, Steve..

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