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Global Eye -- Base Bawl By Chris Floyd
So it really is true. Osama and the boys really do "hate us for our way of life," as George W. keeps saying. Funny thing, though: the Western "ways" that the terrorists hate seem to be the same ones that also get up the nose of George W. and the frenzied fundamentalists of his own "al-Qaida" (Arabic for "the base"). Last week, the re-emergent bin Laden penned a "letter to the American people" -- a bitter gumbo of mumbo-jumbo outlining his justifications for jihad. It's written with the same shallow, ignorant, sex-obsessed fanaticism churned out every day by the dull-witted ideologues who have formed the mind of the American autocrat and the extremist fringe he's brought to the center of world power. Behold the authentic fundamentalist voice: "You separate religion from your politics, contradicting the pure nature that affirms absolute authority to the Lord and your Creator. You permit acts of immorality, and you consider them pillars of personal freedom. You practice the trade of sex in all its forms, directly and indirectly. We call on you to be a people of manners, principles, honor and purity; to reject immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling and usury." There's more -- much, much more -- in this vein from the playboy-turned-preacher, who of course does not omit the usual thrice-chewed cud of Jew-bashing: they "control the media," etc. And there's the customary boasting about the superiority of his own constipated religious views: the only acceptable model of reality, it seems. To those of us who have tracked the rise of the militant Christian Right for decades, from its sideshow beginnings in the early 1970s to its monstrous apotheosis in Washington today, bin Laden's belching of fundamentalist bile is tediously familiar. He speaks the same language as the "Christian Reconstructionists" and other splinter sects who populate such shadowy but powerful groups as the Council for National Policy, which is now directing the social agenda for the Bush Regime. The CNP is a group of hard-right honchos -- funded by the usual malevolent millionaires -- who "vet" Republican candidates for ideological purity. Past and present members include the usual suspects: Pat Robertson, John Ashcroft, Reagan-Bush terrorist facilitator Oliver North -- and that longtime champion of violent Islamic extremism, Grover Norquist, widely acknowledged as one of George W.'s most important "political mentors" and chairman of the "Wednesday Meetings," a politburo of right-wing activists, media bosses and White House officials who meet weekly to calibrate the latest party line. Sitting comfortably alongside these "mainstream" figures on the CNP are Reconstructionists like John Whitehead and R.J. Rushdoony. And what do Reconstructionists believe? Imam Rushdoony puts it this way: "We believe that the whole Word of God must be applied to all of life. It is not only our duty as individuals, families and churches to be Christian, but it is also the duty of the state, the school, the arts and sciences, law, economics and every other sphere to be under Christ the King. Nothing is exempt from His dominion. We must live by His Word, not our own. The Christian should therefore not fear laws in support of Christian social goals just because they interfere with personal freedom." This "dominion" includes the death penalty for homosexuals, according to Reconstructionist affiliate American Vision. And what about the Jews? "The god of Judaism is the devil," says the group. Bush tried to appoint AV official J. Robert Brame III to a top post in the Regime, but the Jesus jihadnik took himself out of consideration after a spate of bad press. Well, those devil-worshiping Jews do "control the media," right? Bush first paid ritual obeisance to Rushdoony and the CNP back in 1999, appearing before them in a secret session that he still refuses to discuss. Now he's hard at work trying to "tear down the walls between church and state" with his "faith-based initiative," which will funnel bags of taxpayer cash to his favorite God-botherers. Initially blocked by Congress, Bush used bureaucratic subterfuge to start a pilot program this year. The very first tranche of public money went to -- who else? -- Pat Robertson. With the new rubber-stamp Congress, Bush intends to go full bore on his "social agenda," Regime minions tell The Washington Post. But the wedding of worldviews between these Muslim-Christian fundamentalists is most perfectly expressed in their mutual hatred for the world's most evil man. You guessed it: Bill Clinton. The CNP was a prime incubator of the perjury trap that snared the Big Zipper; Whitehead, for example, was one of the main legal diddlers pimping Paula Jones. Osama shares their furtive passion for the Arkansas catdaddy. He lards his letter with a long list of the United States' foreign policy follies, some of which are indeed worthy of chastisement. But considering the source -- a murdering, power-mad, rich-boy religious nut -- it is a rather egregious case of the pot calling the kettle black. Anyway, outweighing all these "crimes" -- even dropping the atom bomb on Japanese civilians -- are "your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the Oval Office. Is there a worse kind of event for which your name will go down in history and be remembered by the nations?" Gee, Oz -- slavery, maybe? Or did the presence of so many Islamic slave-traders "sanctify" that early example of globalization? Yes, even back then, fanatical Christians and militant Muslims made common cause in maiming the world with violence, repression, death and fear. And Lord help us, both groups are back in the saddle again. 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