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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (41475)	4/30/2004 12:56:12 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 793912

Here is the "Times" review of Frontline's show tonight. Most of you have had it run in your area already. I will watch it and post my review. Understanding the President and His God By ALESSANDRA STANLEY Published: April 29, 2004 he question is not, When did George W. Bush accept Jesus as his personal savior? The "Frontline" documentary "The Jesus Factor," on PBS tonight, raises a different issue: Do most Americans realize just how fervent the president's evangelical faith really is? "The Jesus Factor" is a little like those illustrated anatomy books where transparent plastic pages can be flipped to reveal the muscle, bone and organs beneath the skin. Stripping off the layers of patrician pedigree, Yale and his Texas business pursuits, the documentary lays bare Mr. Bush's spiritual conversion and its consequences. Advertisement It is not a disrespectful look. Yet by pulling together well-known and long forgotten incidents and remarks, the program reminds viewers that this "faith-based" president has blurred the line between religion and state more than any of his recent predecessors: a vision that affects the Iraq conflict as well as domestic policy. In the wake of Sept. 11 of course the religious influence seems obvious, since Mr. Bush has invoked a higher authority who has led him to battle "the evildoers." And at a time when Mel Gibson's film "The Passion of the Christ" is one of the top-earning movies, and the "Left Behind" series of books, apocalyptic Christian thrillers by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (the Antichrist heads the United Nations), has outsold John Grisham, the evangelical Christian movement is highly visible even in places like New York and Los Angeles. But like the evangelical movement, the president's born-again faith was not as striking to outsiders in 1987, when he moved to Washington to work on his father's presidential campaign. At the time reporters mostly saw him as the Bush family bouncer, someone who kept an eye on disloyal staff members. Nor were his born-again evangelical beliefs much more than a biographical footnote in Mr. Bush's gubernatorial campaigns. Even in his 2000 presidential race most journalists placed Mr. Bush's religious beliefs behind his family lineage, career and political ideology. His faith was mostly examined in the context of a midlife crisis: a black sheep's self-styled 12-step program that helped him stop drinking and focus on a political career in Texas. "The Jesus Factor" examines Mr. Bush's faith by mingling his public pronouncements with interviews with friends; fellow members of the Community Bible Study group in Midland, Tex.; evangelical leaders; and Texas journalists who covered him. Doug Wead, who was George H. W. Bush's liaison to the religious right during the 1988 presidential campaign, says that the younger Mr. Bush was his ally, serving as a behind-the-scenes link between his father, an Episcopalian moderate, and the evangelical movement, which is a critical base for the Republican Party. Mr. Wead says his memorandums to the vice president came back to him annotated by someone who seemed very knowledgeable about evangelical Christians; Mr. Wead says he thought the candidate was handing them over to the Rev. Billy Graham, a Bush family friend. "But it turned out he was vetting them with his son," Mr. Wead says. Once the younger Mr. Bush's faith took hold, it spread to his political ambitions. "I believe that God wants me to be president," is what Richard Land, a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, recalls hearing Mr. Bush say in a meeting with close associates on the day of his second inaugural as governor of Texas. Once elected president, Mr. Bush went to work. "We need common-sense judges who understand our rights were derived from God," he says in a 2002 clip. "And those are the kind of judges I intend to put on the bench." The documentary revisits a 1993 interview Mr. Bush had with a reporter for The Houston Post, Ken Herman, on the day he announced his intention to run for governor. Mr. Herman recalls that Mr. Bush said he believed that a person had to accept Christ to go to heaven, a view that Mr. Herman published. "The political ramifications of that were huge," Mr. Wead explains. "And so he doesn't talk about that anymore." (During the 2000 campaign Mr. Bush said he thought schools should teach both creationism and evolution, but he has not been as forthcoming about which theory he personally prefers.) The imprint of Mr. Bush's faith can be seen on his appointments to the bench and on his decisions on embryonic stem-cell research and so-called partial-birth abortion. And religion also veins Mr. Bush's discussion of war. Mr. Land describes him as a believer in "American exceptionalism." Jim Wallis, editor in chief of Sojourners magazine, a liberal evangelical publication, refers to his talk of a divine mission as the "language of righteous empire." "The Jesus Factor" is an enlightening look at the president and the electoral clout of evangelical Christians. But one drawback of focusing so intently on Mr. Bush's faith is that it screens out other perhaps equally important factors, like political expediencies, personality quirks and clashing interests, that inevitably influence decision making in the Oval Office. And even some of the president's closest allies say they are not sure when he is speaking from the pulpit and when from the Beltway. "There is no question that the president's faith is calculated, and there is no question that the president's faith is real," Mr. Wead says. "I would say that I don't know and George Bush doesn't know when he's operating out of a genuine sense of his own faith or when it's calculated."

To: LindyBill who wrote (41475)	4/30/2004 8:51:22 AM
From: unclewest	Respond to of 793912

"It requires the commander on the ground to determine the target and provide the positive identification of the target, the positive location of the target, and then to also do the assessment on the collateral damage — in other words, what unintended consequences would have by striking that particular target," said Maj. Gen. John F. Sattler, chief of operations for the United States Central Command. Initially, this struck me as being much to cumbersome for a squad or platoon under fire. After a second reading, I realize the wording is the problem not what is being required. This is how it works... Determining the target and fixing a positive ID on the target is easy. Stick up your head and see where the bad guys are shooting from. Tell the FAQ or aircraft commander the details so he can get the fast movers with the right armament headed your way.. Then continue to look around and determine if there is a school, hospital, crowded market place, etc., in the area. If so report that info too including the precise location of these buildings. The target building can still be hit, but the angle of attack may be adjusted to keep a long or short round from hitting an important location. This is all nice and clean and plays out well in a classroom. The problem comes when friendlys are dropping from enemy fire. Then the guys on the ground want the bombs on the way right now. Who gives a shit about collateral damage when you are being shot at and your buddy is bleeding to death? The first level of our military fighting units that have staff officers to evaluate such things as collateral damage possibilities is Battalion. But the fighting is done by squads, platoons and companies. Those on the line know this is not a classroom exercise nor sparring in a dojo. For them, every firefight is a fight to the death. The best platoon and company commanders know what support is available every minute and they know how to get it on target immediately. War is ugly. Collateral damage is not a good thing...Neither is the death of a GI. On a battlefield, we have to be willing to accept the first to prevent the second. A high majority of Iraq citizens want to live peacefully with their families (Most now do that.). The extremists are at best 1% of the population. We owe it to the other 99% and to our own troops to kill any extremist shooting at us everytime one shoots regardless of his location. We have a firm national policy of not negotiating with terrorists...so why the heck are we now negotiating? When the terrorists believe that attacking us means sure death for them and when the population believes the only way to a peaceful existence is to cooperate and not support the terrorists, we can negotiate with the terrorists if any are left alive. We ain't there yet. uw