The top US general defended the leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying it is inspired by God.
“He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country,” said Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Rumsfeld is “a man whose patriotism focus, energy, drive, is exceeded by no one else I know … quite simply, he works harder than anybody else in our building,” Pace said at a ceremony at the Southern Command (Southcom) in Miami.
Faith-based warfare.
The real question is, once we throw these bums out, how long is it going to take to weed all these fanatics out of the government and the military? How much damage has been done?
And can people still argue, with a straight face, that the GOP and government have not been taken over by radicals who have confused their politics with their religion?
JoeTx
and all the people who knew the hell what they were doing have been canned and gone to the private sector. Doubt you’ll get them back!
srv
Where did all the secular humanism get you guys in Vietnam?
But is it Lord Jesus or Lord Bush that tells him best?
Punchy
Mr. Cole, it’d be very interesting if you could tell us how all of this is probably being accepted (or not) by the military, being that you’re ex-military.
Most of us shlubbs have never been enlisted, and I, for one, would be happy if you would expand this post to give us a sense, in your opinion, of what the military may think of these whackjobs. Do they accept this crap in brainwashed fashion, or do they hear this and fear for their lives, knowing that “God’s their commander” is not the way to win?
Thx.
jg
I guess you now know what an Army of ONE actually means. The ONE is God.
Tsulagi
Holy Fuck. I knew Boykin who oversees terrorist intelligence analysis in the Pentagon was loony (the guy who saw Satan hovering over Mogadishu and has a photo to prove it), but Pace too?
Well, the path to promotion in the military is clear. Screw fitness reports, get Dobson to baptize you in the Pool of Retardation and you float straight to the top.
Now if they could just get Dobson/Falwell to issue a fatwa that Christian warriors get 172 virgins in Heaven, they can also solve those little enlistment problems.
capelza
Or Robertson could issue a “Patwa”…
farmgirl
Holy F*ck is right. I knew General Pace was a tool (how else would he qualify for a top job under the current leadership) but I didn’t realize he was that big of a tool.
Cyrus
They’re on a mission from God.
Zifnab
With Faith as our shield and Rightousness as our Armor, who needs kevlar, right?
les
Why do I hear so many people practically creaming because Rummie works so hard? It just means more incompetent output.
Steve
It’s nice to see that the military brass decided to draw the line on the highly important issue of gays in the military, but that they don’t get involved in rebelling against the civilian leadership on trivial issues like the war.
SeesThroughIt
I think you forgot a “not” in the last sentence, John.
fwiffo
John, do you know the exact moment when your shrillness crossed into Godwin’s law territory? Not that I disagree with the sentiment…
Pb
So *that’s* why they skimped on body armor! No wonder there are “no Atheists in foxholes”, sheesh.
Sirkowski
I don’t remember Sun Tzu saying anything about having God on your side.
Perry Como
That’s because Sun Tzu was a Democrat. Or he had a book to sell.
ThymeZone
The only thing I can say to that is “Jesus H. Fucking Christ.”
How fast can we get rid of these crazy assholes?
Redleg
Jeebus- I guess the last defense for the indefensible is to say they are doing God’s work. That excuses them from being total fucking fuck ups.
bud
Would you have had the same sort of reaction to this statement?
“Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.”
http://www.kansasheritage.org/abilene/ikespeech.html
No? Why not? It’s a miltary man referring to G-d, which, obviously is a violation of the “separation of church and state” and marks the speaker as an idiotic yahoo.
Hint, John: You don’t get to the top of the food chain in the Pentagon without being a really good politician, and knowing how to kiss ass. Elaborate praise (especially for your superiors) in public pronouncements is de riguer in the military. Awards, which are shoveled out wholesale in direct proportion to rank, are filled with this same sort of bullshit.
Step back, take a deep breath, and realize that this doesn’t mean that Pace is a religious nutcake; he’s just following the forms.
Maybe in January of 2009 you can quit hyperventalating.
ThymeZone
“God bless us!” is hardly comparable to “Jesus is running the military through Donald Rumsfeld.”
Not even in the same ballpark.
The former is just figurative speech, the latter is fruitcake-crazy. Unfit for duty crazy.
Pb
Unless you’ve got a crusade to run, that is.
ThymeZone
True.
morinao
He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country…[Rumsfeld is] a man whose patriotism focus, energy, drive, is exceeded by no one else I know … quite simply, he works harder than anybody else in our building
Be interesting to see Pace’s full remarks. Because these snippets boil down to, “Well…he thinks he’s doing the right thing. And he does try really hard.”
Not the most ringing endorsement.
Steve
Andrew Sullivan prints a reader email:
Interesting.
Punchy
Is God a five-star general? If not, who gives him the promotions?
By the way, if God WERE running our military, we’d have some kick-ass lighting bolt guns.
Bender
This is just mil-speak, as mentioned above. Even if this remark is to be taken as literal truth, Rummy’s not alone in his beliefs.
Even some Commander-in-Chiefs have been flat-earth Christianist hayseed Bible-thumpers!
Gary
I think Andrew Sullivan is right for once. Gen. Pace is using outrageous flattery to make the point that Rumsfeld is not living in the real world. His statement is a cry for help.
I think we will see the army revolt if Iraq is not well on the way to settlement (i.e withdrawal) by the time of the State of the Union adress. They’ve been telling us, via Murtha and other surrogates, that they can’t take much more.
Davebo
Bender
Believing that god intervened, or that God created the universe, is a bit different from believing that God has a red telephone that, when picked up, rings at Rummy’s bedside at the other end.
TenguPhule
If this is true, then everyone at Southcom deserves to be terminated immediately. Rumsfield working is an oxymoron.
HyperIon
not a nutcake…just a suckup.
i’m so relieved.
Proud Liberal
It wasn’t Andrew Sullivan that suggested that Pace was being sarcastic but rather an email he recieved. Its absurd to think that Pace was being sarcastic. He is an ass kisser par excellence. He is dead serious. This country is currently being run by people that truly astound me. I am so fuckin sick of religion being brought into everything in this country. Enough already. God is a belief based on faith in the unknown. So is astrology. Imagine if Pace had said, I think Rummy is making the right decisions because he is an Aquarius and the moon is in the seventh house. And Jupiter aligns with Mars.
ENOUGH… throw them out. Throw them all out.
Shawn
He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country…
……
Why does the good Lord hate us?
wilfred
I (your name here) declare that Donald Rumsfeld is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life. Pace forgot that the difference between ass kissing and brown nosing is depth perception – somebody needs to do a head egress on the general.
ThymeZone
It’s worse than that. Faith requires belief in the absence of supporting evidence, or despite evidence to the contrary.
If the first part doesn’t get you, the second part will.
Echtheow the Geat
I am a man alone. As I recall the slaughter of my comrades, there is no one I can open my heart to. The man mindful of his reputation does not reveal his sadness. Ever since I buried my lord, ever since I lost my companions, I must mourn alone. Now I have left my home land. I sail the icy seas in search of a new lord. A generous giver of gold. A lord who will welcome me into his drinking-hall and divert me from my grief.
With no friends to assist me, I remind myself of the hall full of retainers The receiving of treasures from my lord after the feast. My youth. I remember resting my head and hands upon the knees of my lord and pledging my loyalty. Then I awake from my thoughts and see the dark waves lashing around me. The hail and snow beating down. I wish all the more to see my warrior friends, to be welcomed with song. But again these images are soon gone. It is little wonder that my spirit is darkened by the fate of man. How brave warriors, one by one, must leave the mead-hall.
Randy
Rummy should have been canned a long time ago. The old man has seen better days. But I don’t see what is wrong with what Pace is saying. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Rumsfeld is a deeply religious man. He probably thinks he is doing what the good Lord tells him is best. I think he’s wrong, but I see no reason to doubt his sincerity.
mere mortal
“He leads in a way that the good Lord tells him is best for our country…”
Why would the good Lord have him do what is best for our country instead of world? And why would we tolerate an official who would act in the best interest of the world instead of the United States?
These questions answer themselves, right up until you understand that there is no God. And then you understand that this insanity is endangering every meaningful thing that actually does exist in this world.
“Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not god who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us.”
– Rorschach, Watchmen
ThymeZone
The transformation of BJ into an all-gay blog is now complete.
Welcome, mead-quaffer. Slip off your shorts and get relaxed. Many here will be glad to meet you.
Tony J
Feld-Marshal Von Rummy is actually accepting calls from God?
Can we see the call-log, please?
Echtheow the Geat
It is often the case that a hardened swordsman, wearying of a nigh-endless sea voyage and harkening in his soul to the festivities of his lord’s mead-hall, and the comforts of his own hearth, will seek partial solace in the embrace of a comely youth aboard the vessel. Such contact is easily understood, and brushed aside once the women of Hybernia, the Franks, the Saxons, the Visigoths, the Avars, or the Greeks are seized in glorious victory. Nevertheless, one must be honest, and expend from one’s word-hoard the truth of what oft occurs on endless journeys through the cruel and thankless realm of the kraken and sea-serpent. Yet who can criticize such conduct, who has not fought with spear and net to save life and honor from the enmities of frost, famine, and ravenous, insatiable monster of the depths? Who among you can claim such knowledge, and who among you shall buttress such a boast with feats of sword or sail?
A man cannot be wise until he has endured the winters of his life. A wise man must be patient. Not easy to anger, nor loose of speech. Neither rash nor unreliable in battle. He should not lack courage, nor be greedy for plunder. He should never boast actions before he can achieve them. He must hold back his promises until he has thought them through and has no doubt.
A wise man must contemplate destruction. For now, ancient walls are decaying, ravaged by wind and frost. Grand buildings, the work of giants, stand deserted. The wine-halls crumble. All the proud lords and their warriors lie dead. Falling in battle, one was carried over the sea by a raven: another was devoured by a wolf: and one was buried by his heart-broken retainer.
So he who thinks deep about destruction and the battles of the past cannot fail to ask “Where now is the war-horse? Where is the warrior clad in mail? Where the giver of gold and feasts? Where is the glory of my lord?” These days are long gone. All that remains is a monument carved with serpents. Where once warriors were laid down by a hail of ash-spears, now a storm of sleet batters their stone. Winter howls and the hardship of life fills men Wealth is fleeting, comrades are fleeting. Man is transient. I wander through a wilderness.
grumpy realist
Oh, great. Some CS grad student has filched a Chinese fortune-cookie-phrase generator, loaded it up with a bad translation of Beowulf and a dud fantasy manuscript, and is now unloading the bloody mess on us as a Turing test for his M.S. thesis.
If we get any more of this I’m going to start quoting from Cicero. In the original.
ThymeZone
Indeed. Pass the glühwein .
Bruce Moomaw
” ‘We’re lucky as a nation that he continues to serve with such passion and such integrity and such determination and such brilliance,’ said Stavridis, 51 [who will be the new head of Southcom and in charge of Gitmo].”
I am such nauseous…
When you combine this with the fact that Ahmadinejad — on the same day! — told us that “I have been in touch with someone who told me we would win…Yes, I have been in touch with God”, I find myself thinking of a little verse that went around during World War I:
Gott Strafe England, God Save The King,
God this, God that and God the other thing.
“Good God!” said God. “I’ve got my work cut out.”
Larry
The worst part of Hell will be the incessant praying.