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Thou Shalt Kill?

Foot-in-Mouth Robertson Doesn't Speak for Americans

While Pat Robertson and his comments should garner the derision they deserve, there is no reason people should go overboard and allow them to ruin America's already strained ties with Latin America. After all, argues this editorial from the UAE's Khaleej Times, he doesn't speak for most Americans.

EDITORIAL

August 26, 2005

Khaleej Times - Original Article (English)    

THE call by controversial preacher Pat Robertson urging the United States Government to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has the Americans stunned. Of course, the maverick Venezuelan leader is unlikely to win a popularity contest in the U.S. He is the one leader, after Fidel Castro of Cuba, that Americans love to hate.


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Nonetheless, the chilling call by preacher Robertson is not easy to digest.

"If he (Chavez) thinks we are trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it," Robertson said matter-of-factly. He went on to reason: "It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job."

No wonder most U.S. commentators and politicians, to say nothing of Latin America, have been shocked by the coldly argued thesis of the millionaire preacher who once ran for the U.S. presidency.

But there’s really no need to get worked up over the views of a loose canon like Robertson. Not being associated with any U.S. Government agencies or institutions, Robertson doesn’t really represent and speak for America and its people.

True, he claims to champion and speak for the cause of the Religious Right. True, Robertson is a founder of the 2-million-member Christian Coalition of America and a supporter of Bush. He helped elect him twice by delivering the votes of hundreds of thousands of Christian conservatives.

Yet he is known across America including within Republican circles, as a man who has his foot firmly in mouth -permanently. Some of Robertson’s notorious quotes and beliefs wouldn’t exactly qualify as divine inspiration. For instance, he once argued that feminism makes women into lesbians, kill their children, and practice witchcraft. On another occasion, he attacked the U.S. State Department, saying it is so far to the left that it should be blown up with a nuclear device.

Apparently, the 75-year old preacher lives in a world of his own - far removed from the realities of our times. Obviously he doesn’t realize that, as a Catholic priest put it, we do not “live under the law of the jungle” any more. The preacher’s call needs to be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.

As it is, America’s ties with its Latin American neighbors, particularly with Venezuela, have been under tremendous strain. Zealots like Robertson shouldn’t be allowed to snap them completely. Besides, this isn’t the best example of the brotherly love preached by the Bible. 


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