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The United States:
God's instrument — or God?

 

By STEPHEN J. SNIEGOSKI

 

On June 1, in his commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Our President gave what was probably the most threatening speech since God told Abraham that He was about to destroy the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Our President said that countries suspected of trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction would be attacked by the United States. The American people, he pontificated, had "to be ready for pre-emptive action, when necessary, to defend our liberty and to defend our lives."

But Our President was not concerned just to defend against physical threats that some countries might pose to the American people. He was also determined to promulgate and uphold America's moral responsibility to dispense cosmic justice: "Our nation's cause has always been larger than our nation's defense." [1]

(Oddly enough, in light of the Bush Doctrine, initiating war is a clear violation of international law: it was deemed Nazi Germany's chief crime at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. International law makes no distinction between the external actions of allegedly good countries and those of allegedly evil countries. No doubt in time the Holy American Empire will have to "reform" that legal anachronism.)

What makes the threat of American pre-emptive strikes especially ominous is that the Pentagon Nuclear Posture Review, leaked to the media in March, includes the option of nuclear strikes against non-nuclear nations. In essence, Washington's current posture appears to be that the effort of some countries to obtain weapons of mass destruction justifies nuking them pre-emptively. [2]

Naturally, America's leaders would not expect other countries to imitate the United States. Just the opposite, in fact. The United States preaches probity and restraint to other countries regarding the use of force, and those countries that do not yet have nuclear weapons are not supposed (or allowed) to obtain them.

The apparent assumption is that the United States is a nation unique in moral authority. Nothing could be wrong with the exercise of force by the all-beneficent United States, which properly uses force to mete out just punishment to evildoers. Recall that the initial name for the military campaign in Afghanistan was "Operation Infinite Justice." At the time, that phrase seemed to rank at the kindergarten level in terms of sophistication, but it is no longer quite so funny. Prudent foreigners may want to acquaint themselves with Jonathan Edwards's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."

The purpose of all of America's actions is, of course, to preserve "peace." One thinks of what Tacitus said about Roman policy: "They create a desert and call it peace." With the use of nuclear weapons, the desert could become literal, as Washington adopts the war cry: "Nuke 'em for peace!"

Hard as it may be to believe, some people in the world oppose the United States's arrogation to itself of God-like duties, authorities, and attributes. But as Our President puts it in his characteristically subtle way: evil folk just naturally hate good folk, and that's why good folk have to destroy evil folk.

Still, a number of questions remain in the theology of current American foreign policy. Do countries that the United States designates as "evil" possess particular evil characteristics that distinguish them from other countries (such as America's allies), or are they evil merely because the United States so designates them? And is the United States the instrument of God, or is it God? In that connection, it is thought-provoking that evil folk look upon the United States as the "Great Satan."

June 4, 2002

© 2002 by WTM Enterprises. All rights reserved.


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