FADED HEROES

The Bush enablers and defenders are dwindling.
Two of the most influential, Tony Blair and
Jerry Falwell have recently exited public life.
Both claimed to be evangelical Christians, but
eagerly supported un-Christian activities.

Falwell supported the apartheid government of
South Africa and attacked his fellow Christian,
Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Tutu as a
"phony." Rev. F. also supported segregation
in his native Virginia, teaching that God had
ordained that blacks should serve whites. He
was theologically confused: he chose Moses
over Jesus as his authority. (Always a bad
choice!) Moses, you will recall, also allowed
slavery, polygamy, and easy divorce.

Falwell fought the teaching of biological
Darwinism and embraced social Darwinism
wholeheartedly. He was unaware, evidently,
that the latter is based on, and in fact assumes
the former. Bad theology leads to bad politics,
and vice ver-sa. (Many American church
people are, like Rev. Falwell, unaware that the
unregulated capitalism fashionable today was
openly preached as social Darwinism by the
"Robber Barons" of the late 19th and early
20th century.) It masquerades now as
"compassionate conservatism."

As Leonard Pitts, the syndicated columnist
has written: "With Robertson and a few others,
Jerry Falwell presided over the rise of a
Christianity unrecognizable to many of us
who were raised in that faith. This Christianity's
moral purview was reduced to two issues:
abortion and homosexuality. It had nothing to
say about feeding the hungry, housing the
homeless, helping the helpless."

Turning now to Tony Blair, we have a more
truly tragic figure. This is a bright, idealistic,
well educated, highly talented person who,
for the best reasons in the world, fell in with
evil companions. He reminds me of Jake, the
ex-Ranger in "Lonesome Dove" who hung
with horse thieves (literally). T. B., like his
friend W. was gulled into the Iraq disaster
by pro-Israel neocons like Cheney, Perle,
Wolfowitz & company. It's tragic for Tony,
and for Colin Powell (who was also gulled),
and for George Tenent (one of the gullers),
but even more tragic for 4 million Iraqis
displaced from their homes, and 600,000
plus killed, with several principal cities
destroyed. And no end in sight. It's tragic
for American families losing 100 killed
each month, and 6 or 7 hundred badly
wounded.

"The kaleidoscope has been shaken," Tony
Blair told a labour party conference in Oct.,
2001. "The pieces are in flux. Soon they
will settle again. Before they do, let us re-
order the world." This was after Mr. Bush
had promised to answer the 9/11 attacks
and "rid the world of evil." What hubris!
What tragic and total silliness!

David Bromwich writes in The Huffington
Post: "The kaleidoscope of Blair was a
necessary cover for the crusade of Bush.
He imparted to the Iraq war a gloss of
philanthropy, a generous fervor, an
impression of a clean conscience; and
his eager eloquence sapped the determi-
nation to resist the war among a good
many doubters."

A decent man who believes in world
community put his beliefs on a shelf to
support criminal actions in a war of
aggression opposed by large majorities
throughout the European community
(including his own Britain), and by
most of the world community.

Here is Bromwich again: "'Hand on heart,'
Tony Blair asked in his farewell speech to
be pardoned for the sincerity of his mistakes
(if they were mistakes). But, hand at the
switch, he never doubted the right of the
great powers to decide by force the destiny
of lesser powers. Merely going along with
Bush has always borne with it a prerequisite
of fever and panic. The binge thinking and
slurred explanations and avoidance of
honest reckoning and reality are too giddy
for some tastes. Having Blair on board gave
a promise of accountability; but the promise
was rhetorical and meant little to its maker."
And nothing to anyone else. What a waste!

jgoodwin004@centurytel.net