Department of Big Surprise
Gee, NOBODY coulda seen this coming a mile away:
Ironically, after yesterday’s mockery of Christianity (and organized religion in general), I’m going to quote Jesus H. Christ, because while the dogma surrounding the religion is insane and incoherent, many of the maxims and lessons attributed to Jesus are in fact beliefs and lessons taught around the world, crossing culture: in fact, Confucius opined thousands of years prior to Jesus that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
In the parable of the good fruit and the bad fruit, Jesus seems to speak of other religions and prophets, but I believe it’s a parable that has many meanings. At the essence, the parable says that no good can come from bad intent.
A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit
Lk. 6.43, 44
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Mt. 3.10 · Lk. 3.9
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Mt. 12.33
And so it is with this silly expectation that the US can fashion something good out of the mess in Iraq, which was initiated under a cloud of lies so black and filthy that it makes the Los Angeles smog seem like a breath of fresh air. None of the real motives for the war have ever truly been revealed (although most of us suspect it’s about oil and war for profit). Look at verse 15: have you ever seen a more accurate description of George “Compassionate Conservative” Bush the warmonger?
Because no one is being honest about the reason for the war, it’s impossible to even identify what a positive outcome should look like. Oh sure, there’s a lot of babbling about “democracy”, but that’s always been kind of an afterthought, mixed in with the rest of the rationales like “liberating the Shi’a” and “fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them here”, all cooked up well after after the WMD scam turned out to be the fruits of a corrupt tree.
And not only are these new rationales fruits of the same bad tree, as the US’s embrace of dictators like Mubarek, the Saudi family, and Pervez Musharraf put the lie to “spreading democracy”, so is the very expectation that the Iraqi “government” (or what there is in government’s place) will meet benchmarks that “Americans have demanded”. The whole imbroglio has been corrupt from day one: every single person in Congress who voted for this knew that the Bush administration was lying. The people who voted for war fell into two categories: people who knew the administration was lying and simply didn’t care because they foresaw (accurately) short term political gain by starting a war, and people who knew the administration was lying and saw (accurately) short-term political gain when the war blew up in Bush’s face like a prank cigar. I don’t believe much thought was actually given to actual life-and-death considerations, and I don’t believe much thought was given to what might really go wrong.
So it’s a big surprise that the crazy mishmash Iraq “government”, which can’t even keep its own people secure, is failing to meet our definition of success. Big surprise.
By their fruits you will know them.
