Auguries of theocracy? - foreign policy

► When policy, traditionally directed toward fostering opportunities for democracy, becomes a tool for theistic hegemony

"This is a new kind of-a new kind of evil," he said. "And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while." - George W. Bush, Sept. 16, 2001

Neo-conservative editor of the Weekly Standard William Kristol admits the aspiration to empire. He writes,

"If people want to say we're an imperial power, fine."

At what point does a legitimate, and understandable desire to expose repressed people to the opportunities and freedoms of democracy turn into a wrongheaded desire to export one’s favored ideology? Perhaps when one feels comfortable accepting the mantle of an “imperial power.”

It seems that President Bush is given to similar sentiments, if only because the iniquitous of the world have driven him to it. Jim Wallis, at Information Clearing House, writes that,

“Close friends say that after 9/11 Bush found "his mission in life." The self-help Methodist slowly became a messianic Calvinist promoting America's mission to "rid the world of evil.""

Challenging the rationale behind going to, and remaining in, Iraq seems, in retrospect at least, to be a justifiable activity. Many presidents have faced this kind of inquiry, some have withstood it, and some have faltered. Honest, if, in the light of history, crucial mistakes may have been made.

But citizens of a nation founded upon freedom from religious prejudice should never have to question an administration's ideological motive for going to war. Exporting theism is not equivalent with protecting human liberties.

It seems we are justified in wondering about these kinds of motivations in this case.