The Madness Of King George
      by Harley Sorensen

      Folks, our God-fearing president, George W. Bush, who claims to start
every morning on his knees praying, now says that he gets his orders from
God Himself.

      I kid you not.

      I refer you to June 24 article by Arnon Regular in Ha'aretz, an
Israeli newspaper. In the last paragraph of that article there's a Bush
quote as related by Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Here,
according to Abbas and Ha'aretz, is what Bush said:

      God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he
instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to
solve the problem in the Middle East. If you can help me I will act, and if
not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them.

      That quote doesn't make clear whether God issues direct orders to
Bush, or whether they discuss things first. but I'd guess discussions. It's
hard to imagine God deciding anything of importance without without first
getting input from Bush.

      Over the years I've met a handful of people who regularly talk with
God, but they usually do so only when they're off their medications.

      Those who get instructions directly from the Almighty are twice
blessed: They get their orders from the Highest Authority, and the orders
are always to do what they would have done anyway.

      Getting direct orders from God makes a president's life simpler. If
God has spoken, the president doesn't have to observe the niceties with
which presidents usually contend, things like getting congressional approval
or United Nations agreement.

      Bush's very own personal God connection explains a lot of things. Like
Bush's disinterest in global warming.

      Why should our duly elected president concern himself with global
warming when God Himself has said, "Don't worry, be happy"?

      Do you see how it works? With God in your corner, it matters not what
you do, because God will protect you.

      OK, I've been shilly-shallying around here, hesitant to come right out
and say what I think, but I'm becoming convinced that our president, the man
with his finger on the nuclear trigger, is a bona fide nutcase.

      I really do. For him to say God told him to strike al-Qaida is just
nutso. For him to say God told him to strike at Saddam, ditto. This guy is
not dealing with a full deck.

      To me, Bush's sanity has been suspect for a long time. He does so many
things that defy logic, like his infamous tax cuts, approved by a thoroughly
cowed Congress.

      It doesn't make sense to reduce your income while increasing your
spending and plunging into massive debt.

      His blithe attitude toward the public debt he is creating indicates a
failure to grasp reality.

      His cavalier entry into two wars within two years, in total disregard
of world opinion on the second one, indicates a man who just doesn't care
what anyone thinks. Now that his ill-planned schemes in Afghanistan and Iraq
are coming apart, I sense a bit of panic in the man.

      Bush knew what everyone knew, that our armies could conquer. But he
had no idea whether they, or anyone, could maintain a peace in nations as
splintered as Afghanistan and Iraq. They can't. They're not trained for
that. That's not their mission.

      Bush is a good salesman, which is almost certainly why his father's
friends chose him to be the front man for the Republican Party. He's a
charmer, no doubt of that. Because of his sales ability, he was able to
convince most Americans that war with Iraq was a necessity.

      But America needs more than a slick salesman to lead the world. We
need, at the very least, a man with mental stability. We don't have that
with Bush. His rapid rise to power, without truly earning it as most
presidents before him have done, has gone to his head.

      So what we have in the White House today is a megalomaniac with a
messianic complex, a man who believes that he and he alone can resolve the
world's problems.

      "I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East," he said. I,
I, I, I, I! With Bush it's always "I." In a job that requires great
humility, we have an egomaniac.

      I don't expect many people to agree with my armchair psychoanalysis of
a man I've never met. We don't like to admit that important people are
crazy, or even that our relatives are crazy. Typically, we overlook their
bizarre behavior until it gets so bizarre we can't ignore it anymore.

      So, all I ask is that you pay attention. A man who claims to get
orders from God, and who creates world-shaking events on the basis of those
"orders," needs watching.

      Harley Sorensen is a longtime journalist and liberal iconoclast. His
column appears Mondays. E-mail him at harleysorensen@yahoo.com.

      ©2003 SF Gate

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