Dialing for Doomsday: George W. Bush and the End of the World

"What harm can he do in four years?" I'm ashamed to say it, but that was my initial reaction to the Supreme Court's selection of George Bush as president. Attempting to avoid alternating waves of gnawing discomfort and quiet desperation, I asked myself a question my imagination dared not answer. Squelching a parade of fears, I sacrificed truth and clarity at the altar of rationalization. "It's not the end of the world," I said, and set my sights on 2004.

Now it appears those first fears were but legless underachievers. Early concerns focused on the environment and education and what Paul Krugman refers to as our "$7 trillion reversal of fiscal fortune;" certainly nothing as dark as what's transpired in the past year. Even as civil liberties, international commitments and our right to petition the government fell by the wayside, and it looked as if incompetence, neglect or something worse contributed to what went wrong, I needed to trust that this president was above exploiting tragedy for personal or political gain.

Using the Statue of Liberty and Sept. 11 as backdrops, however, he continues to shamelessly cull Americans into accepting his agenda: "War is peace. Slavery is freedom. And we're going to attack Iraq no matter what." As one seasoned government official told the Christian Science Monitor, "This administration is capable of any lie. . . in order to advance its war goal in Iraq." Given Gulf War propaganda expert John MacArthur's assertion that this crew will "make up just about anything ... to get their way," it's now clear that unimaginable harm can occur in a matter of months. And, frankly, musings on "the end of the world" are open to interpretation, too.

Initially, Armageddon chatter was met with amusement, a la Y-2K hand-wringing and millennium madness. Some saw Satan in the smoke clouds, just as others see the Virgin Mary in their Cinnabons. Surprisingly, however, a recent Time/CNN poll showed that a whopping one third of all Americans are now checking the news for apocalyptic signs. And raptureready.com webmaster Todd Strandberg joyfully updates his "Rapture Index" as events unfold.

While Armageddon aficionados might be easily dismissed, when Brent Scowcroft says an attack on Iraq will lead to Armageddon and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa warns it will "open the gates of hell," these matters take on more weight. Likewise, when a Saudi diplomat explains that Bush's "obsession" with Iraq will lead to tragedy, one thing becomes starkly clear: Armageddon, tragedy and "gates of hell," aren't words traditionally used by generals and ambassadors.

Various mainstream sources have also reported that Christian Zionists are campaigning to oust the Palestinians in order to make way for the Second Coming of Christ. Considering Biblical prophecy a mandate for awarding regional control to Israel (while downplaying another aspect of the "to do" list - conversion of the Jews), conservative Christians are not only funding Jewish settlers, but garnering immense influence in Washington. The secretive Council for National Policy, for example, which ABC News labeled "the most powerful conservative group you've never heard of," includes John Ashcroft, Tommy Thomson and "Left Behind" author Tim LaHaye as former members.

Despite pressure from the Democratic National Committee, the Bush campaign refuses to release a tape of the rumored "king-making" speech G.W gave before the council in 1999, fueling speculation that the council was responsible for his presidential nomination. Whether that's true or not, as the Washington Post reported last December, "For the first time since religious conservatives became a modern political movement, the president of the United States has become the movement's de facto leader."