Agog at Gog and Magog.

I suppose, once Bush left office it was bound to happen. Former foreign leaders feel free to talk far more candidly than they ever could whilst Bush was still in office. But, even so, this is jaw dropping:

President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that Iraq must be invaded to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse.

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “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.”

And I swear I am not making any of this up.

What kind of mindset would one need to have to be able to ever seriously say that to another world leader? How deluded must he actually have been?

Chirac says he was boggled by Bush’s call and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs.”

This insane person was in charge of the free world. And this is how he chose to speak to other world leaders. He wasn't even embarrassed by this crap, he actually bloody meant it.

After the 2003 call, the puzzled French leader didn’t comply with Bush’s request. Instead, his staff asked Thomas Romer, a theologian at the University of Lausanne, to analyze the weird appeal. Dr. Romer explained that the Old Testament book of Ezekiel contains two chapters (38 and 39) in which God rages against Gog and Magog, sinister and mysterious forces menacing Israel. Jehovah vows to smite them savagely, to “turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,” and slaughter them ruthlessly. In the New Testament, the mystical book of Revelation envisions Gog and Magog gathering nations for battle, “and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

In 2007, Dr. Romer recounted Bush’s strange behavior in Lausanne University’s review, Allez Savoir. A French-language Swiss newspaper, Le Matin Dimanche, printed a sarcastic account titled: “When President George W. Bush Saw the Prophesies of the Bible Coming to Pass.” France’s La Liberte likewise spoofed it under the headline “A Small Scoop on Bush, Chirac, God, Gog and Magog.” But other news media missed the amazing report.

They missed it my ass. Around about the time of the Iraq war the press in the US were terrified of being called unpatriotic by the loons of the right and the last thing they would have reported on was the fact that the man in the Oval Office was a religious zealot who believed that God was, literally, sending him on a mission to defeat Gog and Magog.

Subsequently, ex-President Chirac confirmed the nutty event in a long interview with French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice, who tells the tale in his new book, Si Vous le Répétez, Je Démentirai (If You Repeat it, I Will Deny), released in March by the publisher Plon.

Oddly, mainstream media are ignoring this alarming revelation that Bush may have been half-cracked when he started his Iraq war.

There's nothing odd about it. That's what the MSM do. That's why The New York Times can still only use the word torture when talking about other countries and speaks of "enhanced interrogation techniques which some allege amounts to torture" when talking of the actions which Bush gave permission for.

It’s awkward to say openly, but now-departed President Bush is a religious crackpot, an ex-drunk of small intellect who “got saved.” He never should have been entrusted with the power to start wars.

He never should have been president in the first place. Exactly as we saw with Sarah Palin; the lessons to be learned here are that the Republicans will name any nutcase as their leader if they think they can fool enough people into voting for them.

He had the name Bush and she was nutty enough to please the Christian Fundamentalists that the Republicans have come to increasingly rely upon to get power. And they hoped that, once they got elected, that they would be malleable enough to be persuaded to follow the neo-con agenda.

Indeed, their ignorance is what makes them appealing This is Richard Perle talking about the first time he met George W. Bush:

"The first time I met Bush 43 … two things became clear. One, he didn't know very much. The other was that he had the confidence to ask questions that revealed he didn't know very much."

In other words, he was an empty vessel; a blank canvass on which the neo-cons could paint. Exactly as they attempted to do with Sarah Palin as Bush was leaving office.

Which suddenly explains this creepiness:

Recently, GQ magazine revealed that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld attached warlike Bible verses and Iraq battle photos to war reports he hand-delivered to Bush. One declared: “Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.”

He was probably too dumb to even realise that he was being shamelessly manipulated. And, anyway, he had unfinished business with Gog and Magog to think about.

It really is terrifying to think that such a "superficial and fanatical" zealot ever had his hand on the nuclear button.

Hat tip to The Booman Tribune.

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Tags: Bush, Iraq war, Gog and Magog, religious fundamentalism, Gog, Magog, neo-cons, Rumsfeld, Christian fundamentalism