Thank you Mr. Bush. We've seen what you can do! Next candidate, please.

[belalady]

Please excuse me for this long posting. During this American electoral season I will refrain from comments favoring one candidate over another because I am not familiar enough with life in the United States, nor with international diplomacy. I'm a mere amateur, not a sage with numerous advanced degrees.
Some things are easy to see, however. Just like for another issue which is not often mentioned -- the possession of Iraq by the United States of Mr. Bush, or Russia’s similar attempts in nearby Afghanistan under Mr. Brezhnev. We must consider the disappearance of a large part of Iraq’s Christian population, people who have lived there since the dawn of Christianity. Their exodus continues today.

Even in his wildest dreams Bin Laden never thought he would achieve this result. This is never mentioned anywhere. To say nothing of the hundreds of thousands of civilians, nearly all poor Muslims from humble origins whom I salute with respect and sadness. Many have died following great suffering because of this war, which is also a civil war whose name changes according to the belligerents. These developments have made me change my way of thinking.
My previous opinions were based on the American government’s statements, which I believed. A large majority of them may have been lies, as proven in some cases. Such as the government's initial intention to remain in Iraq only briefly after removing Saddam Hussein.

I am sorry to disappoint some of you, but the consumer society -- the model which the United States wants the rest of the world to adopt while the planet is exhausted by reckless, unscrupulous, unsustainable over-development -- is no longer a model for Christian society. On the contrary. While many are dying of hunger, the consumer society appears to be more of a decoy, promoting disparities and a false promise of happiness, with opulence for a minority and deprivation for the masses.

Despite the theme often repeated by the American president, I must say that contrary to what Mr. Bush initially led us to believe, the so-called “Christian discourse” is not always apparent in US actions -- at least not in the results. That is my opinion, with all due respect to the American president.
We recently saw the Evangelical church -- one of the largest of the numerous "private churches" native to the United States but in this instance from Korea (a vassal to the United States) and trying to gain a foothold in Pakistan -- with a few dozen of its "militant" believers acting like salesmen trying to capture the minds of those countries' inhabitants using a religious pretext. This was very accurately perceived by the inhabitants as a political, colonial action of the 21st century, and the militants were heatedly and shamefully expelled.
In my opinion AND in that of other third world people, American Protestants are striving for temporal power on earth. Driven mainly by colonial political motives, they defend the initial materialistic model of society, as well as its political leaders in many cases. They often play a dual role, both religious and political: a full time job and very brave, seeing it brings in so much money... But not in all cases. Okay, I will stop maligning people.

If that continues, faith in Jesus Christ will be taught only at certain times of day on television, via pay TV for some programs... Send your money here. At the right time. And when the show is over, everyone changes channels at the same time -- and from bed. People will live like "manufacturing robots", ever more obedient or stupefied by orders from above (above, but still on earth, I hasten to add), and in fact not Christian but Political. Bravo, Big Brother! Thanks but no, thanks.
This trend has finally begun to be perceived worldwide over the last few dozen years, even if it's not being said out aloud. The "TV evangelism" phenomenon on such a large scale and with such significant financial resources exists only in the United States. I repeat : this phenomenon comes almost exclusively from the USA.

I feel increasingly close to the Muslims who are often unfairly maligned, although I am Catholic (and will remain so!). Rest assured: I have not converted to Islam nor do I support their elected officials, motivated by the power of their religion above all. They are often seen as enemies by rival politicians competing for power, not only because they often defend external, remote political regimes where there is no democratic political rivalry as we have here (it is true that we rarely hear them complain about that). And also because they live in our countries and are naturalized without defending the past and therefore the cultural heritage and the same democratic concepts). Are those their only motives?. No, they are not.

That is simply because they are putting up an unconscious resistance -- a bit "on the left" from our viewpoint – against the immoral, materialistic bourgeois values of our Western and very ATHEIST consumer society, or even pagan for those who openly "idolize" the symbols of the "golden calf". And I believe it is also very much for that reason that they have made a few friends among our "notables and elected officials” who are either bourgeois or attempting to become so and seeking power… of consumption!).
We are fighting these often egotistical and occasionally corrupt politicians through a range of actions in order to limit the damage to society when it is indispensable. We fight them through a variety of group actions such as those by consumer organizations, trade unions, or ecologists. We try not to fall into leftism or a lack of respect of our written moral and democratic values. This is true for me in any case.

It is easy to see the friendships among the jet set and the very wealthy, going beyond borders or differences in religious beliefs. But the faithful of all religions act as real conservatives when facing the threats to traditions and cultures in this commercial world run by the wealthy or the arrogant. Believers of all types, acting conservatively to resist the economic mechanisms of an unbridled plunge towards the unknown or the worldwide domination of a few powerful anonymous minorities, the direction the world is currently heading.
Like for many people, the American intervention made me think differently. I who believed that the practices of the Muslim faithful, different from my own, were “dangerous” for me. Now I see them as practices of people who have something in common with me. They are often true conservatives like myself for many things, in a world heading towards the brink, driven by powerful devoted lobbies or by unscrupulous billionaires with neither ideals nor faith in God.

I do not know if a successor from Mr. Bush's party will continue to exterminate the Mesopotamian Christians who might have been an obstacle to the American diplomacy in the Middle East, and who are not affiliated with nor under the orders of the clerics and politicians of private American "Christian" churches. If the Democrats win the elections, which is very possible, will there be more of the same and in the same diplomatic sense of Mr. Bush as well (which I see from the outside)? I do not believe that anything which occurred in Iraq happened by chance.
But I am increasingly uncertain about the world led by these invaders of Iraq, who I first perceived as “liberators”. Is this what I want for the planet’s future? This feeling of suspicion and ANXIETY is spreading.

There are conservatives and conservatives. Just like there are rich and poor. The word has a different meaning according to the social position of those in question. We will see a reconciliation of those with common political objectives, a coming together of the true faithful of all of the world's religions who were previously enemies, beyond the Christian -- Muslim -- Jewish divide. The faithful will unite against the immoral, bourgeois and often perverse lobbies for driving us to ruin. These include the Freemasons and the numerous sects who work secretly, invisible to voters and our elected officials: the Illuminati, Scientologists, pedophile lobbies, Nazis (often hidden) and other extremist minorities who are the enemies of mankind.

That is my long-term prognosis, of which I'm increasingly convinced.

Best regards.