Dialogue: Hand of God on new-look leader

By GARTH GEORGE

As events have unfolded after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, I have watched closely for any sign of the sort of knee-jerk, big-stick reaction one has come to expect from the United States.

And it hasn't come. Which surely, in view of the general perception of President George W. Bush as a man ill-equipped to run the country let alone cope with a crisis, has been a relief.

So it was comforting this week to receive from an old friend in Chicago - a man whose observations of what's going on around him I trust - an e-mail letter confirming what I had begun to suspect, that Mr Bush is not only coping, but making an impressive job of it.

My friend, with whom I went to school in Minnesota more years ago that we care to remember, is the administrator of a big suburban public library. He is also a Vietnam veteran whose shrapnel wounds still from time to time plague him and who, having experienced the horrors of war, yearns for peace.

On the day of the atrocities he told me in a hurried message that for the first time since returning from Vietnam he had been reduced to tears.

But this week his whole attitude has changed. Instead of despair I read hope, a hope that I'm sure is shared by all of us who believe we should stand four-square behind the US in its time of trial.

He writes: "Its been an amazing two weeks here. Memorable - for all the wrong reasons of course - but clearly of tremendous historic importance.

"The village idiot, Bush, has risen to the task and gained the respect of everyone, including me. It was amazing to watch. For the first couple of days Bush was just a stumblebum - Mr Mumbles.

"Then he went to the [New York] site and saw for himself. You could see him grow in front of your eyes. He spontaneously put his arm around an old fireman and starting talking - it seemed like an epiphany.

"Live on television, you could almost see the hand of God sweep over him. Suddenly a whole new man emerged and started talking. Incredible. Different voice, different words, new expression on his face. If that was scripted, it was a good job. It was more like a miracle."

My friend thanks God that "there have been no rockets and bombs yet", a response that Americans had become too used to during the days of President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

He goes on: "The whole country seems to be in a state of grace. I have never seen anything like it in my life. Uncertainty, yes, but a deep and abiding resolve. And not the resolve of the sunshine patriot or the old men who have made a secular religion out of their military service.

"This is the deep, heartfelt resolve of a people very united. It is restrained. There are flags everywhere. Most people are saying they want a measured response based on fact-finding, preferring to put time and money into the FBI, CIA, counter-terrorism and enhanced police endeavours.

"Right-wing Christian leaders have made public statements that the gays, the American Civil Liberties Union and the abortionists have called down the wrath of God upon the county - Sodom and Gomorrah stuff. But that nonsense has fallen on deaf ears.

"I sense a far deeper and better purpose in everyone I have talked to. And everybody realises that this is going to take a long time.

"How, for instance, do we get inside the heads of people who take two years preparing to commit suicide by crashing an airliner?"



Looking to the days to come, he writes: "What an odd mixture opposes us - medieval religion, a mindset of hatred, primitive treatment and regard for women, fanaticism, suicide, all mixed together with modern technology.

"But then there was a classical Greece, Rome, Byzantium - defeated by barbarians.

"I think we are going to have to do more than harden airplane doors - we are going to have to harden our hearts and stick this out for the long term. This is modernity versus a new dark age."

Which are my sentiments pretty much exactly. This evil which would hurl the world back into ignorance and barbarism, has to be stopped, no matter how long it takes.

History has a habit of throwing up unexpected leaders in times of world crisis. George W. Bush, a Christian believer and thus open to God's promptings, could well be the latest.