It really is a crusade

[morgan_dhu]

I found this item courtesy of techn0goddess.

Let me ask just one simple question.

WHAT THE FUCK?

Seriously.

People all over this planet are strangling on the accumulations of bile-soaked hatred and slaughter justified by fundamentalist doctrines (not to ignore the contributions of all those other wonderful things like colonialism, imperialism and incessant meddling from European and american empires and the global neo-liberal nightmare of untrammelled oppression and greed in the name of the holy profit margin).

And the US military machine is humming "Onward Christian Soldiers."

Is anyone in power there even thinking anymore?

(Edit: I originally misspelled techn0goddess's name. This has been corrected. My apologies.)

Comments

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

Is anyone in power there even thinking anymore?

I seriously believe that many people who follow strict fundamentalist religious doctrines like this do it so that they don't have to think for themselves.

I also think that there is a distinct possibility that people who behave in the ways described in that article sincerely believe that "unbelievers" are somehow less than human, so they think it doesn't matter how you treat them.

I like to think that someday, maybe when they die and confront their God, they will be in for a biiiiiig surprise.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I like to think that someday, maybe when they die and confront their God, they will be in for a biiiiiig surprise.

I'm with you on that one.

IMO, one of the big problems with both Christianity and Islam is the idea that "there is only one true God - and it's mine!" - and that this can be used to justify all sorts of horrible things you do to people who don't folow that one and only true God. Judaism (the other major monotheistic religion) doesn't seem to have quite so bad a history in this regard (though some factions of Judaism seem quite determined to catch up to its younger cousins).

[trinityva.livejournal.com]

I have nothing deeply thoughtful to say.

But

According to the OCF's executive director, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Bruce Fister

...*iz ded*

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I was so disgusted at the content I didn't see that. Oh my, there's a piece of terrible irony.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

I highly support the quest he's on now, but as a Jew, I have to say, what fucking took him so long? He was a lawyer for Reagan in Iran Contra? His son is acting like the military is the first place he's encountered anti-semitism--what insulated little rich protected neighborhood did he grow up in? What did he do to combat the religious zealots attacks on queers in the military before they got so well enscounced to start pushing their fundamentalism on everyone. Now they're coming for him, and suddenly he cares. It's about time he knew better. Welcome to the neighborhood, buddy.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Intolerance and oppression - show me again where it says that's what Jesus would do?

This just sickened and angered me on so many levels.

[fancymcsnazsnaz.livejournal.com]

What in the HELL?!

Ugh. Someone please stop and let me off this thing.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Why am I in this handbasket, and what's making it so hot?

[guyindkny.livejournal.com]

I wish I could say that I was terribly surprised by all of this, but I'm not. After all, American foreign policy has been nothing short of neo-colonial, and what is such a big part of colonialism but the White Man's Burden. The orientalising process of that also dehumanises those who practice another religion, making them an Other that is easier to hate and kill. Add to that, before the current Iraq war started, you had American generals publicly saying "My God is bigger than their god," this story just reaffirms what I already knew.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

I think that what surprises me is not so much that this is happening - as you say, it's perfectly in line with what American and european imperialism has been doing for a very long time... it's just that it's so blatant.

And I guess there's also a sickening feeling that we might well be finding ourselves trotting along behind them, as Harper fulfils (or at least does his very best to fulfil) his dream of turning Canada into Mini-America.

[guyindkny.livejournal.com]

Oh, you just had to bring the Supreme Leader of Canada Prime Minister into this, didn't you? I'm not as certain that we'll be trotting along to the same extent with the Crusade aspect of their imperialism, given how much more multicultural we are, and how we seem to allot a certain added degree of respect to other religions than the Americans tend to.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Intellectually, I agree with you that our culture has farther to go if we're going to go all the way down that road. In fact, the public opinion polling company (http://erg.environics.net/) I work for has done a lot of social values research (http://www.michaeladams.ca/books/fire_ice/) that supports the argument that our values are different in enough ways that we're not likely to go that way under normal conditions.

But we're not necessarily living under normal conditions anymore. I acknowledge that it's more of a gut fear than a well-supported argument, but I'm still afraid that we'll take "shelter" in, or be imprisoned by, Fortress America.