Greene on religion; Bush and Iraq

Greene on religion

Richard Greene in his Sunday column (“The presidential candidate who will get my vote”) seemed to suggest a religious test for the presidency.

He forgets that neither God nor the Bible is mentioned in our Constitution.

The Constitution does not require an oath on the Bible.

All presidents have by custom taken the oath on a Bible. Article II, Section 8, simply requires an “Oath or Affirmation” to faithfully protect and defend the Constitution.

Article V, Section 3, of the Constitution mandates that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States,” or any of its states.

Candidates who make claims of religiosity remind me of convicted criminals who “find Jesus” just before their sentencing hearings!

We should rather look for character and morals in how they live and how they advocate for peace, compassion and justice, instead of spewing bigoted vitriolic rhetoric.

Bush and Iraq

I find it interesting that many Americans believe that every Muslim should apologize each time one of their brethren commits a terrorist act.

Yet I’ve never heard a Christian apologize for the much worse damage that George W. Bush, former president and self-described “born-again Christian,” inflicted on the Middle East.

Bush is unambiguously guilty of the international crime of aggression against Iraq, a country that never attacked us and whose third-rate military was in no way a real threat to us.

Even if they had WMDs, which they didn’t, they had no delivery system, outside of FedEx.

Bush started an unnecessary war of choice that killed at least 100,000 people; displaced more than a million; brought untold misery to countless others; and will end up, according to economist Joseph Stiglitz, costing us more than $3 trillion.

Little wonder the Middle East is in such a mess.

But, I guess, even if we all apologized from now until doomsday, it probably wouldn’t be nearly enough to make up for it..

This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Greene on religion; Bush and Iraq."