I am not on the fence on this, and here is why. The entire so called "war on terror" is at it's heart a religious war (yes, oil, conquest, etc) but
to Bush he was God's chosen and there was even a republican add during the election which stated that Bush had heard God's command to destroy
Hussein and thus he did. Some of the most dangerous (to human kind) people in the Middle East are the fundamentalists and I believe the exact same
thing can be said here as well. Religion does NOT give you morals, in fact religion is one of the few things that can make a "good" person do
absolutely despicable things to their fellow man.
From Glen Greenwald's discussion on this very topic in "A Tragic Legacy":
" . . the idea of being a Manichean comes from this third century BC philosophy that – or religion really, that basically understood the world,
[as] a never-ending battle between the forces of pure good and the forces of pure evil. And all human events could be understood . . . through that
prism.
[Manichaeism is] a very simplistic idea that even early Christianity rejected as not appreciating the complexities of how the world actually is and
the ambiguities, the moral ambiguities that characterize who most of us are in most situations. George Bush views the world and his followers viewed
the world through this lens of pure good versus pure evil.
And it’s not me saying that. He said that in virtually all of his speeches. And when you see the world that way what it means is that if you’re on
the side of pure good, as he asserted that he was and we are, it means that anything that you do, no matter how limitless, no matter how brutal and
immoral, is inherently justifiable because it’s being enlisted for service of the good.
And by contrast, anything that you do to those on the other side is inherently justified as well because they’re pure evil. And from the war in Iraq
to the torture camps and secret prisons that we set up all of the things that have done so much damage, I think that’s the mentality that lies at
the heart of it."
wallwritings.wordpress.com...
Religion supports clan thinking, outdated morality, and a very simplistic world view that does nothing to aid in the understanding of the complexity
of international relations. One can so easily say "God is on my side" (when if he not?) and thus what I am doing is right, no matter what it is.
This is a very dangerous path, and one I believe could literally destroy civilization in a nuclear world. Morality and ethics are certainly necessary
in foreign relations as they are in all things, religion? Not so much...
