Gurus of Terrorism
GURUS OF TERRORISM
THE PRESIDENT’S CRUSADE
BY
DAVID ARTHUR WALTERS
President George W. Bush saved his best for last during a rare press conference: "One of the interesting things people ask me, now that we're asking questions, is, can you ever win the war on terror? Of course, you can. That's why it's important for us to spread freedom throughout the Middle East.... That's why I'm pressing the Greater Middle East Reform Initiative, to work to spread freedom. And we will continue on that. So long as I'm the President, I will press for freedom. I believe so strongly in the power of freedom.... I also have this belief, strong belief, that freedom... is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in this world. And as the greatest power on the face of the Earth, we have an obligation to help the spread of freedom.... That's our obligation. That is what we have been called to do, as far as I'm concerned.... And my job as the President is to lead this nation into making the world a better place.... (W)e are making progress...." (1)
The president occasionally referred to America's "mission" under "Almighty God" as a "Crusade." And, in an interview with journalist Bob Woodward, he disclosed that his ex-president father, the author of the Bush War on Iraq I, was not the strong sort of man he needed to look to for advice, hence he looked up to his holy father, the super-patriotic, patriarchal Pater of Fatherism, for condonation of the long-standing plan to start the Bush War on Iraq II, then he proceeded with his pre-emptive mass terrorism campaign dubbed "Shock and Awe."
The majority of Iraqis were duly terrified even though they had become somewhat inured to previous violence at the hands of Saddam Hussein's coalition and the Almighty Coalition. The latest coalition of course was led as usual by the greatest nation on Earth, a nation the likes of which has not been seen since the Roman Empire. It follows that a terrorist attack on the leader of civilization is an attack on civilization itself, hence it must be responded to.
Adolf Hitler, guru of Teutonic terrorism, put it this way at a military conference on July 25, 1943: "Terror can only be broken by terror. One has to counter-attack, everything else is nonsense." (2)
Moreover, the local rule of law as well as the laws of ethical civilization must be suspended wherever suspected enemies of the state might be plotting terrorism, whether or not they are citizens of the state. "Lawyers cannot understand that in exceptional times new laws become valid," Hitler noted on September 14, 1941. (3)
Once an enemy state has been shocked and awed by a blitzkrieg, insurgents usually have to be dealt with, usually without a trial. Anything goes: physical and mental torture, murder - whatever. At a December 1, 1942, conference, Hitler declaimed to his generals:
"This has to be hammered into everyone's head; whatever leads to success is right in the conduct of anti-guerrilla operations. That's the point of departure. If someone does something not exactly in accordance with regulations, but achieves complete success, or if someone is faced by an emergency he can deal with in the most brutal way, he's entitled to use any measure that promises success. The goal must be the annihilation of these gangs and the restoration of order." (2)
To wit: All is fair in love and war. Anything goes for the revolutionaries (terrorists) too. That is why every nation should arm its citizens, providing that they are in military organizations. Not only will they be useful for fighting enemy terrorists, but they might come in handy fighting the thugs in charge of legally organized crime - the political leadership in Rome, Berlin, Washington.... On May 16, 1942, Der Fuhrer said:
"To teach a nation the handling of arms is to give it a virile education. If the Romans had not recruited Germans in their armies, the latter would never have had the opportunity of becoming soldiers and, eventually, of annihilating their former instructors." (3)
Of course a small minority of Muslim freedom fighters (terrorists) fought back against the terrifying mechanized horde that quickly destroyed the state of Iraq. Embedded reporters who were not killed or wounded had a thrilling time, and they reported that Americans are at their very best in war.
Still, a few "criminals" and "terrorists" put up a hell of a fight. Indeed, freedom fighters are wont to fight wherever freedom from empires is passionately wanted. Terrible Hitler thought Muslims were better terrorists than Jews and Christians, reasoning that the Almighty Terrorist of Jews and Christians had made cowards of Jews and Christians. But that is nonsense. Witness the Jewish Revolts to begin with. Observe the Protestant Revolts too. Everybody including pagans and atheists at least secretly love the Almighty Terrorist, the Supreme Anarchist who is beyond good and evil, who represents absolute freedom, the will to power; in fine, Power. Religion, including secular political religion, organizes the distribution of Power - every individual, in its will to persist forever and ever, naturally wants it all. Yes, a small minority of freedom fighters (terrorists) always resist, no matter what. For instance, no more than ten percent of the colonial population - the patriots (traitors) - favored America's war for freedom from the British Empire - less than half of them actually took up arms.
The holy father or personal representative of Power to whom Protestant President Bush turns for advice is obviously not the Pope in Rome, nor is he the only Unbegotten Son of Power whom the president claimed as his political hero in order to get the votes of the religious right that prefers the war-cult of the Old Testament to the love-cult of the New Gospel. No, he said he turns to his daddy.
But the President really does not turn to a person at all but to the unknown, indefinite, infinite Power. The Supreme Power of powers cannot in any way be limited to anything or incarnated in any particular shape or form. In fact, any particular name for X is rather an insult to its spirit. Every Jew knows that very well; and so do Muslims, many of whom are better Jews than Jews in that respect. Certain fundamental Judeo-Christians are aware of it as well; they prefer the Almighty Terrorist of the Jewish faith before it was toned down considerably and fear converted to love by quibbling scribes who were interested in a better place hereafter and therefore casuistically stretched the more terrifying provisions of the Torah. Thank YAHWEH for that and for the Pharisees who in essence found Judeo-Christianity. In any event, absolute liberty and obedience to the Almighty Terrorist's authorized representatives can only be known through the cultivation of gross ignorance or by crushing all opposition as flat as matzo.
With a few glorious exceptions, when reporting on President Bush's press conference the media ignored his underlying political plank - to use the greatest power on Earth to get revenge for his daddy and to free the peoples of the world for American democracy in the Judeo-Christian name of the supreme being, the Almighty for whom might is ultimately right, whether those peoples like that kind of freedom or not. Of course he noted that he, not God, is the one who made the momentous decision to wage war.
None of this is said to imply that George W. Bush is as shocking and awesome as Adolf Hitler, or that his deity is really the sublimated, Anglo-American version of the Anglo-Saxon war "god" (a Gothic term for the supreme being), or that the President will wind up his term with a larger body count (than Hitler) with his more sublime method of freeing the world for American democracy by confusedly invoking the misnamed warrior god of the Hebrews.
In any case, this satirical and cynical sort of analysis of war-mongering, moronic bigotry (foolish by-goddery) is considered distasteful if not unpatriotic by most of the media. The jingo-media sold out the credulous American people in hysterical concert, in the most disgraceful manner, and now, wanting the usual pretexts, it is somewhat embarrassed by the President's mention of the real motive stampeding the national cattle into the present costly ordeal.
Solomon, whose empire shrank, warned fools not to count on their riches to win wars. His warning fell on deaf ears. Every empire would save the world for itself, finds the salvation costly, and eventually falls flat. Once the United States of America was won from the British Empire, some Americans wanted to export their revolution; others wanted to simply bear witness, to be a good example to the world. Now it is said that war, not peace, has made American great, and that Americans are greatest when fighting, for only then is their virtue made visible. However that might be, President Bush is certainly not the first leader who believes America should be on a violent crusade to save the world whether it wants to be saved or not. For instance, consider a couple of excerpts from Herbert C. Hoover's book, The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson (1958):
"America is the only nation since the Crusades to fight other people's battles at her own gigantic loss. We may be proud of that Crusade even if it did fail to bring peace to mankind."
"Like President Wilson and his principal advisers, a substantial part of the American people even at the height of their emotions believed that civilization had to live with these 60,000,000 Germans and that our purpose must be to disarm them, ban their militarists, require them to pay such reparations as were practicable to obtain, and support the efforts of the good men in Germany to build up their new government of, and by, the people."
It took another world war costing millions of lives to obtain the objective. Germany conceived itself as the world-power-state destined to save the decadent world from itself, then went too far, too fast, and learned some very hard lessons to its and the rest of the world's great cost. Today's Germans know that President Bush is no Adolf Hitler, at least not yet. But they and many other peoples around the world do not like the similarities: President Bush was rightly perceived to be the greatest and most imminent threat to world peace. But he is not so perceived by Americans, for they have not suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of their own Almighty, therefore they do not really know "Him" very well. Wherefore too many Americans, resting certain on laurels won so far, would unduly lengthen the string of disasters called Crusades instead of following in the footsteps of such emperors as Frederick II, who won his crusade or jihad with the Middle East without an armed force or bodyguard, but by means of peaceful negotiations.
Frederick II (1194-1250), was the king of Sicily (1197-1250), German king (1212-1250), and Holy Roman Emperor (1220-1250). The Pope kept reminding Frederick of the vows he had taken when he was crowned: to go on crusades. But Frederick was not inclined to crusading right off the bat, for he had plenty of problems at home to deal with. Frederick, by the way, as king of Sicily was quite familiar and friendly with Arabs. He believed he was entitled by marriage to be king of Jerusalem. He finally did prepare to embark on a crusade, in 1227, but he was forced to cancel his plan because an epidemic broke out among his crusaders. Pope George IX would not accept the epidemic as an excuse, and excommunicated the emperor. So what? Frederick thumbed his nose at the Pope and set sail in 1228 to the Holy Land, where he peacefully negotiated a deal with Sultan al-Kamil for possession of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth. He crowned himself king of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. He believed he was a messenger of God, compared himself with Christ, and thought his entrance into Jerusalem was similar to Christ's entry on Palm Sunday.
Perhaps the next President of the United States will follow in Frederick’s footsteps, and peacefully negotiate deals with other violent organizations.
Kansas City 2004
(1) Excerpt from White House transcript, President Addresses the Nation in Prime Time Press Conference, April 13, 2004, 8:31 PM EDT
(2) Hitler Directs His War - The Secret Records of His Daily Military Conferences, New York: Oxford 1951
(3)Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944 - His Private Conversations, New York: Enigma 2000
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