Bush's Political Religion : Destroy Other Religions to Gain Politcal Power

Everything is political for the Bush Administration, and everything is first viewed through the political prism. How can this work to our political advantage? How can we exploit this politically? How can we use this to further our political goals?

Nothing is sacred. Political is first. Religion must become political to serve our purpose, and religion that does not serve our political purposes will be denigrated.

The political is the religion. Opposing religions must be destroyed to gain and preserve Bush political power.
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From the Center for American Progress.....

Weeks after berating Newsweek for releasing details of abuses of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Pentagon admitted on Friday "that soldiers and interrogators kicked the Muslim holy book, got copies wet, stood on a Koran during an interrogation and inadvertently sprayed urine on another copy," according to the Washington Post.

Although the Pentagon attempted to bury the story by offering its admission at 7:15 on a Friday evening, the truth of the matter is undeniable: The Bush administration authorized degradation of sacred religious texts as a means of extracting information from prisoners.

The Bush administration explicitly authorized humiliation of the Muslim faith as a justifiable means of interrogation. The White House described the Koran mishandling as "a few isolated incidents by a few individuals." But religious degradation was an interrogation tactic approved at the highest levels. In December 2002, Donald Rumsfeld "authorized interrogation tactics at Guantanamo Bay that included the removal of religious items, forced grooming such as shaving facial hair, and removal of clothing." These tactics were "designed to offend Muslims." An investigation of Guantanamo Bay by Vice Admiral Albert T. Church, "found cases in which a female interrogator 'touched and spoke to detainees in a sexually suggestive manner in order to incur stress based on the detainees' religious beliefs.'"

These actions have become the greatest source of propaganda against the United States and its soldiers. Extremists around the globe love nothing more than using American abuse of the Muslim faith as a recruiting tool for insurgency and terrorism. The Bush administration played right into our enemies’ hands and has put Americans everywhere—and most importantly, U.S. soldiers on the front line in Iraq—in grave danger.

The administration’s complete indifference to these abuses only fuels the fire. Rather than definitively renouncing these actions and promising to change any existing policies—or even better, shutting down the Guantanamo Bay facility once and for all—White House spokesman Scott McClellan again blamed the media for the latest revelations of religious degradation. More troubling, the White House has actually promoted military and civilian officials who were directly responsible for prisoner abuses at in Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House’s actions are not only tone deaf; they are counterproductive, dangerous, and morally repugnant.