[Newspoetry] Why Politics and Religion Is a Dangerous Combination

[Mike Lehman]

With all the concern about "Islamic extremism", perhaps we shouldn't
forget about Christian bloodlust.
Mike

> Wednesday, January 19 9:07 PM SGT 
> 
> Bush salutes US air strikes on Iraq as "Lord's work"
> 
> AHMAD AL-JABER AIR BASE, Kuwait, Jan 19 (AFP) - 
> 
> Former US president George Bush on Wednesday told American airmen based in Kuwait to enforce a no-fly zone over
> Iraq that they were doing God's work.
> 
> "I'm delighted that I've been invited out here today to salute you, who, in my view, are doing the Lord's work," Bush said
> to rapturous applause from 400 troops of the 332nd Air Expeditionary Group.
> 
> Bush, silhouetted against a huge US flag, praised the airmen's mission at this desert air base.
> 
> "Iraqi minions pillaged this great country," he said. "I hope no-one in the US Congress or anywhere else in the United
> States forgets the importance of this mission ... or underestimates it.
> 
> "We (US) are a moral country and we made a moral statement in January 1991 that that aggression will not stay, and you
> are making a moral statement today," he said, referring to the Iraqi invasion and Gulf War that followed.
> 
> "You are making sure this aggressor (Iraqi President Saddam Hussein) knows that his aggression will not go rewarded but
> punished," Bush said to the crowd assembled in a disused hangar to the background hum of incoming helicopters.
> 
> Bush was decorated with Kuwait's highest award and given an honorary doctorate in 1993 for his role in the US-led Gulf
> War victory over Iraq, whose troops occupied Kuwait for seven months from August 2, 1990.
> 
> The former president's visit to the emirate came on the ninth anniversary of the start of the six-week conflict. His son, also
> called George, is the leading Republican candidate for this year's US presidential election.
> 
> Stepping down from the podium, Bush mingled with the airmen to the strains of piped marching tunes, merrily signing hats
> and posing for group photographs.
> 
> Ahmad al-Jaber air base, 80 kilometres (50 miles) southwest of Kuwait City, is the temporary home of dozens of US
> warplanes which have been punishing Iraqi violations of an exclusion zone in southern Iraq with air strikes.
> 
> Squadrons of US F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-18s and A-10 Warthog ground attack aircraft all fly out of the base.
> 
> Some 3,500 US troops and staff are also stationed at Kuwait's Camp Doha, where the US military prepositions and
> stockpiles equipment for use in live firing practice and desert training.
> 
> Bush's main ally during the Gulf War, former British prime minister John Major, is also in Kuwait on a private visit for the
> anniversary. The emirate signed defence accords with London, Washington and Paris after the conflict.