God Sets My Foreign Policy
In a recent speech, President George W. Bush stated that he bases "a lot" of his foreign policy decisions on things he thinks are true, including the existence of the Almighty and the Almighty's inspiration to make people free.
Now, I am not here to criticize the many people who calm their fears of death with faith in the heavenly kingdom. It works for them, and probably acts as a valuable buttress to civil society. However, most people who choose to make the leap of faith necessary to accept Christianity are not in charge of the world's most powerful military and are not responsible for fighting a major war in Iraq.
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were good Christians, but it appears they left their faith at church and fought the Second World War with a ruthless and coldly rational detachment which has won them respect and honour ever since (whatever else may be said of is morality). Say what you like about Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, but they were both shrewd enough politicians that they did not limit their options in Vietnam by relying on guidance from God.
It is curious how national leaders who make bad military decisions often blind themselves to rational solutions to their strategic problems. Hitler had a mystical belief in the overwhelming moral power of the German frontkampfer. German soldiers were very good, but not so good that they were immune to American bombs, British artillery, or Soviet bullets. Hitler's irrational approach to war was the despair of his generals, and more than any other person he was responsible for the military disasters which followed the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
Similarly, the French Army in the First World War believed in the tactical efficacy of the bayonet. This was not a religious delusion, but hailed back to the French Revolution, when mass armies of politically-inspired citizen levees defeated the professional armies of the other European monarchies. The spirit is captured in the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, which waxes nostalgic about flooding the furrows of the fields with the blood of the invader. This elan could not stand up against artillery and machine guns, and a million French soldiers were killed and wounded before the end of 1914 alone. Unlike Hitler, the French changed their strategic and tactical thinking and the war was not lost.
Now freedom is something that I appreciate, and I would not trade Canadian democracy for anything, but the will to conquer in the name of the Jehovah and to spead freedom around the world is not a military tactic. It will not defeat insurgents, Iranians, North Koreans or anyone else who is uninterested in converting to Christianity and becoming Republican.
It will not win the war in Iraq, and President Bush's statement that it inspires his foreign policy is the strongest indictment yet of his capacity as a national leader.
Now, I am not here to criticize the many people who calm their fears of death with faith in the heavenly kingdom. It works for them, and probably acts as a valuable buttress to civil society. However, most people who choose to make the leap of faith necessary to accept Christianity are not in charge of the world's most powerful military and are not responsible for fighting a major war in Iraq.
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were good Christians, but it appears they left their faith at church and fought the Second World War with a ruthless and coldly rational detachment which has won them respect and honour ever since (whatever else may be said of is morality). Say what you like about Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, but they were both shrewd enough politicians that they did not limit their options in Vietnam by relying on guidance from God.
It is curious how national leaders who make bad military decisions often blind themselves to rational solutions to their strategic problems. Hitler had a mystical belief in the overwhelming moral power of the German frontkampfer. German soldiers were very good, but not so good that they were immune to American bombs, British artillery, or Soviet bullets. Hitler's irrational approach to war was the despair of his generals, and more than any other person he was responsible for the military disasters which followed the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
Similarly, the French Army in the First World War believed in the tactical efficacy of the bayonet. This was not a religious delusion, but hailed back to the French Revolution, when mass armies of politically-inspired citizen levees defeated the professional armies of the other European monarchies. The spirit is captured in the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, which waxes nostalgic about flooding the furrows of the fields with the blood of the invader. This elan could not stand up against artillery and machine guns, and a million French soldiers were killed and wounded before the end of 1914 alone. Unlike Hitler, the French changed their strategic and tactical thinking and the war was not lost.
Now freedom is something that I appreciate, and I would not trade Canadian democracy for anything, but the will to conquer in the name of the Jehovah and to spead freedom around the world is not a military tactic. It will not defeat insurgents, Iranians, North Koreans or anyone else who is uninterested in converting to Christianity and becoming Republican.
It will not win the war in Iraq, and President Bush's statement that it inspires his foreign policy is the strongest indictment yet of his capacity as a national leader.
posted by Rob Stewart | 10:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home