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We're
in a Battle with Satan!
A
BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Beth Hunter
As
we now all know, the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, Army Lt. Gen.
William G. Boykin has bleating far and wide that the counterterror
war is a battle with Satan. According to Pauline Jelenick, in a recent
salon.com report, Boykin said of a 1993 battle with a Muslim militia
leader in Somalia that "I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew
that my God was a real God, and his was an idol." Ms. Jelenick continues:
"Appearing in dress uniform before a religious group in Oregon in June,
Boykin said Islamic extremists hate the United States 'because we're
a Christian nation…and the enemy is a guy named Satan.'"
Now, I fear that dipping my pen into the "this is a Christian country"
epithet will cause me just one brain aneurysm I don't particularly
need this afternoon (I have much cleaning to do around the house...I
will, however, consider these words while scrubbing the toilet
today.) Nevertheless, I personally don't appreciate it – nor, I assume,
do
you -- that Bush & Co. has essentially labeled every citizen
of the U.S. and every foreign person, group or country who disagrees
with
their policies as Satanic, demonic, anti-Christian, or unpatriotic. With regard to the word 'Satan,' in particular: I submit that this
term derives from the Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic word "Shaitan," which
translates into 'adversary.' The metamorphosis of the word 'Shaitan'
or 'Satan' from its originally benign reference to an adversary, to
its eventual evil and demonic meaning is a twist of medieval invention.
As further elucidation of this point, however, will doubtless get me
into hot water with some folks, I merely recommend Elaine Pagel's "The
Origin of Satan," for this Princeton University scholar's credentials
and historical research are unimpeachable on this subject.
Pauline Jelenick also says this in her article: "Rumsfeld [recently]
repeated the Bush administration position that the war on terrorism
is not a war against Islam, but against people 'who have tried to
hijack a religion.'" Exsqueeze me, but when did it become the official
business of the U.S. government to run around the world clamping
down on people who are trying to hijack a religion? And need I remind
anyone that the first of the Crusades was a war by the Christians
against the Muslims?
More importantly, here we've got Bush & Co. claiming the "terrorists" are
hijacking a religion (Islam), while at the very same time Bush & Co.
is hijacking our democracy and turning it in to a totalitarian regime;
by all appearances, they have successfully hijacked what was formerly
regarded as the Republican Party; and they have hijacked the true
tenets of the Christian religion upon which they rely to justify
their own very real Crusade, and have thereby made pawns out of the
truly religious.
And now, a refreshing quote from Hermann Goring, Luftwaffe commander,
in an
April 18, 1946 interview (from Nuremberg Diary, by Gustave Gilbert):
It
is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is
always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a
democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist
dictatorship…Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought
to the bidding of leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell
them
they are being attacked, denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism
and exposing the country to danger.
Chilling,
eh? But I can't leave here without an uplifting quote, so I offer
up the University of Utah's 2003 commencement speech
given by Terry Tempest Williams:
When minds close, democracy begins to close. Fear creeps in, silence
overtakes speech. Rhetoric masquerades as thought. Dogma is dressed
up like an idea. And we are told what to do, not asked what we think.
Security is guaranteed. The lie begins to carry more power than the
truth until the words of our own founding fathers are forgotten and
the images of television replace history. An open democracy inspires
wisdom and dignity of choice. A closed society inspires terror and
the tyranny of belief. We are no longer citizens. We are media-engineered
clones wondering who we are and why we feel alone. Lethargy trumps
participation. We fall prey to the cynicism of our own resignation.
When democracy disappears, we are asked to accept the way things are.
I beg you... do not accept the way things are.
Question. Stand. Speak. Act.
More later, from somewhere in America.
Beth Hunter
A
BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION |
