Posted on 03/22/2004 6:40:14 AM PST by truthandlife
Despite repeated assurances to the nation that he does not see the war on terror as a "religious war," deep inside President Bush recognizes the enemy wants to kill Christians, says a new book on his family.
In "The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty," authors Peter and Rochelle Schweizer quote a Bush cousin as saying: "George sees this as a religious war. He doesn't have a p.c. view of this war. His view of this is that they are trying to kill the Christians. And we as the Christians will strike back with more force and more ferocity than they will ever know."
In addition, the authors quote Franklin Graham as saying: "The president is not stupid. The people who attacked this country did it in the name of their religion. He's made it clear that we are not at war with Islam. But he understands the implications of what is going on and the spiritual dimensions."
The Schweizers report that Bush reads the Bible daily every morning and that it affects his actions and his words.
One morning after Sept. 11, according to the book, he woke up and read Proverbs 21:15: "When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers."
"For several weeks after the attacks, he referred to the terrorists and their sponsors as 'evildoers,' with that passage firmly fixed in his mind," the book says.
Cousin Elsie Walker said she believes Bush believed a tragedy was coming before Sept. 11 – and that he was called to be president because of it.
"There are certain things – I don't want to get too spiritual – in the case of George it does seem that he was reluctant to get into the fray of the campaign (in 2000) because he knew (that a tragedy might take place)," she says. "If he had his druthers, he would have run for president later in life or maybe not at all. But I think he felt called to it, for a lot of reasons he understood, but for some he didn't. And I think that a lot of the things he said during the (2000) campaign have much deeper resonance now."
Peter Schweizer is the author of the much-acclaimed "Reagan's War." Some close to the Bush family say that in this new book he and his wife have managed to get closer than any other biographers to date.
"The Bushes," based on more than five years of exclusive on-the-record interviews with family members and close family friends, is scheduled for release April 6.
The book also explains that former President George H.W. Bush at first opposed his son's plans to invade Iraq.
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