Oh, boy

According to Sy Hersh's latest article in The New Yorker (via Suburban Guerrilla):

Bush’s closest advisers have long been aware of the religious nature of his policy commitments. In recent interviews, one former senior official, who served in Bush’s first term, spoke extensively about the connection between the President’s religious faith and his view of the war in Iraq. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the former official said, he was told that Bush felt that “God put me here” to deal with the war on terror. The President’s belief was fortified by the Republican sweep in the 2002 congressional elections; Bush saw the victory as a purposeful message from God that “he’s the man,” the former official said. Publicly, Bush depicted his reëlection as a referendum on the war; privately, he spoke of it as another manifestation of divine purpose.

You know, there's a pretty obvious drawback to assuming that when good things happen to you, it's because God likes you and thinks you're a good person. When bad things start happening, you have to ask yourself, "What have I done to make God angry?"

And if you're a man of such sincere religious faith as Bush no doubt is, it can't help that one or two of the bad things that have happened were...acts of God. It must be driving him absolutely nuts.

Oh, wait. He is. Kos has lengthy excerpts from Hersh's interview with Wolf "you never made a mistake?" Blitzer:

I've been a critic of the war very early in the New Yorker, and there were people talking to me in the last few months that have talked to me for four years that are suddenly saying something much more alarming.

I don't want to sound like I'm off the wall here. But the issue is, is this president going to be capable of responding to reality? Is he going to be able -- is he going to be capable if he going to get a bad assessment, is he going to accept it as a bad assessment or is he simply going to see it as something else that is just a little bit in the way as he marches on in his crusade that may not be judged for 10 or 20 years.

Emphasis mine. This is where we are, folks.