Once more into the breech, my dear CkG.
Let's check out David. I am sure Athanasius would do a better job, but you are stuck with me.
For those unfamiliar with the story...
David was a king of Israel, chosen by God to succeed Saul. David did everything that God commanded, until one day he saw Bathsheba, the wife of soldier Uriah. David got her pregnant, and decided to send Uriah to the battle front and commanded that the troops withdraw, stranding Uriah. It worked. Uriah died, and David had Bathsheba. Not the end of the story...
A prophet, Nathan was sent to David.
1 And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
2 The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds:
3 But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up: and it grew up together with him, and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.
4 And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.
5 And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:
6 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.
7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
8 And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.
9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
Here we see that Nathan's metaphor was not aimed at the murder of Uriah, although that was important. No it talks about the powerful using illicit means to gain what could never be David's by right. He did indeed intentionally have Uriah killed, but that was incidental. If his goal was Uriah's death, he could have had it before. No, it was not about killing Uriah, but getting Bathsheba.
Now for the Bush analogy. There are several levels that some here may see in my simple appearing statement. Let's ignore most of them for now though.
Bush is the leader of a powerful country. He wanted something, the elimination of Saddam as ruler. He felt the need to justify his actions to the public, and as a result the justification for war would be refusal to disarm. If Saddam disarmed, then that would satisfy Bush, or so it seemed. The administration on several occasions referred to specific and credible evidence for the existence of WMD's. Bush and his people knew they were there with certainty. Now if I were convinced that weapons were warehoused somewhere, and I were planning a military action, I would darn well want to be able to show it to the world immediately after the war. I would use the abilities that the military has and that everyone knows they have to make sure nothing was touched. If they were removed, I would have pictures of the whole thing. Allowing that the officials of the administration are as intelligent as myself, they would have done the same. Curious thing though, nothing has been produced. Nothing of substance at all.
Why? Because there was never anything there. Bush wanted something. He used deception to drum up support, easy after 9/11. Bush sent soldiers to kill and be killed, not because he wanted our troops dead. That was a necessary means to the ends. Like David. Killing Uriah was necessary, but not because David despised him. Those troops who died in Iraq would not have needed to, except to further Bush's lust for Saddam's removal. He put them in harms way, for a reason that did not exist except in a fantasy. True, the Iraqis killed them, but so too did the Ammonites slaughter Uriah. David put Uriah into battle for his own selfish reasons, and Bush put soldiers in harms way for his personal agenda.
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