Gould,

As always you are the voice of reason.

The quote is from a foreign newspaper, quoting a foreign leader (whose
English is not perfect, who is quoting something from memory, that no one
else heard.

Bush and Kerry have too many issue where they differ, for anyone to resort
to this. I put this right up there with the Swifties against Kerry.





"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
A number of cites, including this one from the WashPost, which questions
the credibility of the statement, but...if you enter the statement in
google, you'll come up with a plethora of hits.

I got 914.

Most seem to say it's a translation, of a translation, of a translation,
of a
translation.

So, surely Bush has cleared this up?
Scanning through the hits I didn't immediately spot anywhere Bush had
clarified
or repudiated the statement. Doesn't mean there aren't any, just that I
didn't
see one. I did type in "Bush denies God told him to strike Al Qaida" and
got a
bunch of hits, but actually *none* seemed to be Bush denying that he said
it.
All of them seemed to be people noting that Bush had not denied it.

It does pose an interesting political dilemna for Bush. Do you clarify or
repudiate a statement that claims you said
God is directing the military and foreign policy of the United
States -(and
reduce the effectiveness of the incident when used by your detractors), or
do
you say that God is *not* speaking to you and giving specific instructions
on
conducting the "war on terror" and disappoint a lot of your most ardent
followers?