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SARAH'S BOYKIN MOMENT

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A pipeline -- God's will?

So America's voters will be violating God's will if they disagree with Gov. Sarah Palin's views on Iraq or energy policy? Does sound a tad that way, doesn't it?

Now, I can't read this kind of stuff without being reminded of the poster-boy for the God-is-on-our-side school of public policy.

That would be Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin, one-time commander of the Army's top-secret Delta Force and former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.

This born-again evangelical, you may recall, was the guy who appeared in dress uniform and polished jump boots before a religious group in Oregon to declare that radical Islamists hated the United States "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian ... and the enemy is a guy named Satan."

Other tidbits of Boykin's wisdom:

"I knew my God was bigger than his (a Somali warlord). I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol."

"We in the army of God, in the house of God, kingdom of God, have been raised for such a time as this (Iraq War)."

President Bush is "in the White House because God put him there."

Oh. I always knew there must be a reason, but I thought it was the Supreme Court. Now I know.

What Sarah Palin needs to know is that the world is complicated, short on absolutes and full of grays. But if God is your public policy advisor, there are no grays. There are no ambiguities. The world is black and white, good or evil.

From that theocratic starting point, public policy gets built on certitude and hubris. And we've all seen where that takes us.

 

 

 

 

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William Fisher has managed economic development programs in the Middle East and elsewhere for the US State Department and the US Agency for International Development. He served in the international affairs area in the Kennedy Administration and now (more...)
 
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