God's Song

Balakot, Pakistan leveled

A recent article http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=7546 by the always excellent Justin Raimondo, got me to thinking about the dry alcoholic who's running the U.S.A.'s war machine and his delusions about religious purpose being fulfilled through his war making. I quote from the piece:

George W. Bush was under orders from God to invade Iraq. That's what he told the Palestinians, according to Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who describes what transpired during his first meeting with the American president in June 2003. According to Abbas, Bush told the Palestinian leaders:

"God told me to strike at al-Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them." Unlike your typical secular liberal, I am not one to snark at any mention of a divine entity, be it Jehovah or Phoebus Apollo. Instead, I wonder: how does Bush know the voice he's hearing is God's? What if it's the Devil's?

Which all reminded me of a Randy Newman song from my youth which describes perfectly the hubris inherent in trying to interpret the will of any God, deity or invisible power of the air. What's an earthquake and a few savage wars followed by withering plagues and fiery volcanoes to a God? To think that He'd care to intervene or ask any of us to be an instrument of His will in our petty sordid affairs is so silly as to be laughable. Or so it would seem. The song goes like this:

Cain slew Abel, Seth knew not why
For if the children of Israel were to multiply
Why must any of the children die?
So he asked the Lord
And the Lord said:

Man means nothing, he means less to me
Than the lowliest cactus flower
Or the humblest Yucca tree
He chases round this desert
'Cause he thinks that's where I'll be
That's why I love mankind

I recoil in horror from the foulness of thee
From the squalor and the filth and the misery
How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me
That's why I love mankind

The Christians and the Jews were having a jamboree
The Buddhists and the Hindus joined on satellite TV
They picked their four greatest priests
And they began to speak
They said, "Lord, a plague is on the world
Lord, no man is free
The temples that we built to you
Have tumbled into the sea
Lord, if you won't take care of us
Won't you please, please let us be?"
And the Lord said
And the Lord said

I burn down your cities-how blind you must be
I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me
That's why I love mankind
You really need me
That's why I love mankind

-----God's Song by Randy Newman (1972)

Aerial view of Balakot