imagine...

What if President Bush listened to all the recommendations he’s currently getting about Iraq and then spent time in silence and meditation and prayer and listened to God? And what if he emerged from silence and wrote an open letter to the Iraqi people? Maybe something like this…

Dear friends,

In our country we are about to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. We believe that God sending his son into this imperfect world was the ultimate act of love.

When Jesus was unjustly arrested in the middle of the night, one of his followers drew his sword and began to fight, cutting off a man's ear. Jesus admonished him saying, "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." He then healed the enemy’s ear.

I want to confess that we as a country have not lived by the example of Jesus. I take responsibility for that. I am sorry. We are sorry.

Our money says, “In God we trust.” Our actions say "in money and in democracy and in the military we trust."

I am sorry that we invaded your country. Although we were very upset about the attack on our country, our reaction was overblown. We acted too hastily. Your country was not responsible for that attack, and there was little to no credible evidence that you posed any imminent danger to us. We were afraid. We were gung-ho. I was determined to protect my people. Our invasion was brash, unwise, ill-founded.

It’s true that I was acting like the proverbial cowboy, traveling the world, guns blazing, ready to sniff out and snuff out all the bad guys. I took it upon myself to be the savior of the world. Or at least be the savior of the United States and our form of politics, economy, and religion.

Because your leader had done bad things did not give us the right to rush in and turn your country upside-down. That showed an arrogant lack of boundaries on our part. And the longer we stayed in your country the more I tried to come up with valid reasons for us being there. I wanted to save face.

To be honest, there were many reasons why we came and did what we did.

• One was because I thought I was honoring my father’s legacy. It always bothered me that we had won the Gulf War but Sadaam had stayed in power. I wanted to finish the job.
• Another reason was because we had not been able to find Osama Bin Laden and I needed our military to do something to show that we were still leading the world in the war against terror. It served as a great diversion.
• We are horribly dependent on oil from the middle east. I thought that anything I could do to gain more U.S. presence and influence in that part of the world was in our best interest. Frankly, if the Arab world really wanted to bring us down they would just need to turn off the “faucet” and we would be brought to our knees in short order.

In truth, we have conducted our own form of jihad. We have set out to destroy anything and anyone that threatened us and our way of political, religious, and economic life. And we felt justified in toppling your governments in order to establish a government that mimicked our own.

Many of my people, and many people across the globe, were able to see these things long before I was. I thought I had done the right thing. And part of the character of a great leader is to stay the course in the midst of lots of criticism. But a truly great leader is to admit when he is wrong and makes it right. Until now, my pride has prevented me from looking honestly at the complete situation. I also felt stuck, thinking that once we had gone in that we were obligated to stay, ad nauseum. And I also wanted to appear resolute for the sake of our troops, who have served so bravely and admirably in the midst of a very difficult situation.

We are sorry. Profoundly sorry. We were wrong. Any positive effects that have come from our presence in your country do not justify what we did. The end does not justify the means. Nothing will ever make up for the chaos that our presence has ignited. So many of you have suffered so much. We humbly ask for your forgiveness.

Here is what we will do to demonstrate repentance, and to try and recompense you for what you have endured.

• We will immediately withdraw all military troops.
• For 3 years (as long as we have been there so far) we will be available to help you rebuild your country, if you want us to. It will be by your invitation only.
• Any civilian who was injured, or who lost a family member during this conflict will be entitled to emmigrate to the U.S. and receive immediate citizenship, if they so choose. If they choose to stay in Iraq we will give them $10,000.
• As much money as we have spent so far in this military campaign will now be given to your government to use as they see fit.

We give you back your country. We will go home.

As the leader of this “Christian” nation I pledge to spend the last two years of my presidency helping us be just that. Christ-like. We owe it to you. We owe it to ourselves. We owe it to him.

Sincerely,

George W. Bush
President
United States of America

Imagine…