Prickly Arabs Denounce Bush/God Foreign Policy Link

Wow, there's just no pleasing some people. First the Arab world gets all steamed at America for invading another country for no reason. Now, they're miffed because President Bush is quoted in the BBC as saying God had told him to invade Iraq.

Here's a sample of some reaction from the Arab media, as culled by the BBC:

Pan-Arab Al-Quds Al-Arabi

"Had those statements come from an ordinary person, he would have been arrested straight away and taken to a lunatic asylum for treatment... Such statements cannot be made by someone who is mentally sound."

Saudi Arabia's Al-Jazirah

"The statements attributed to US President Bush on God's message to fight terrorists in Afghanistan and end the tyranny in Iraq... indicate that America is striving to practice a series of firm ideological principles, even if this is a major source of detriment to US interests and the interests of the Middle East... The fallacy of Bush's ideology lies in the fact that Bush thinks it is America's right to decide people's fate."

Other Arab papers editorialized on Mr. Bush's assertion, in a recent speech, that Islamic radicals were seeking to establish an empire of terror from Spain to Indonesia.

Egypt's Al-Ahram

"US President Bush has warned of 'a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia'... This is simply a preposterous statement... It is illogical to rely on the views of small radical groups that have neither weight nor influence to create such a phantom called 'radical Islamic empire.'"

Saudi Arabia's Al-Watan

"Bush might have been right about the expansion of the base of the terrorist network to span from Spain to Indonesia. This corresponds with reality and the statements of the Indonesian investigator about indications the Bali bombers belonged to a new generation of terrorists. After four years of war on terrorism and two consecutive wars that Bush dragged the world into, here we are reaping the benefits of these efforts represented in a new generation of terrorists."