On Friday May 2, 2003, George W. Bush, President of the
United States of America, stood on the deck of the aircraft
carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the coast of
California and announced the end of fighting in Iraq.
In a copybook speech, spring-loaded with the rhetoric of the
righteous, and fired through with the oratory of victory, he
spoke of noble causes, the pursuit of liberty, and of that
liberating narcotic, freedom.
"Everywhere that freedom arrives, humanity rejoices. And
everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear . . ."
He addressed the soldiers of the US armed forces.
"We are committed to freedom in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in
a peaceful Palestine. The advance of freedom is the surest
strategy to undermine the appeal of terror in the world.
Where freedom takes hold, hatred gives way to hope. When
freedom takes hold, men and women turn to the peaceful
pursuit of a better life.
"American values, and American interests, lead in the same
direction: We stand for human liberty."
For good measure, he ended the speech with a biblical
quotation and a reaffirmation of the place of the Christian
God in this supposed secular nation's big military adventure.
"In the words of the prophet Isaiah: To the captives,
`Come out,' and to those in darkness, `Be free'. Thank
you for serving our country and our cause. God bless you all,
and may God bless America."
Many of those serving in the armed forces and "fighting for
freedom" in Iraq and Afghanistan were armed with weapons
supplied by a company from Michigan called Trijicon.
Etched into the gun sights of the weapons were codes for
biblical quotations: JB8:12, for example which stands for the
Gospel of Saint John, chapter eight, verse 12.
"When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said I am the light
of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness,
but will have the light for life."
Freedom it seems was being and would be delivered with a
bullet and good Christian values, a serendipitous arrangement
for Trijicon, which between 2000 and 2008, earned an
estimated $US240 million in US government contracts.
This year the company has been awarded a $US660 million
contract to supply the US Marines with the inscribed sights.
According to NZPA, Trijicon said in a statement: "As part of
our faith and our belief in service to our country, Trijicon
has put scripture references on our products for more than
two decades."
The practice was apparently instigated by the company's
fundamentalist founder, Glyn Bindon, who was subsequently
killed in a plane crash in 2003.
Never mind the biblical message, they must be good gun
sights, because in addition to supplying the US marines,
Trijicon also supplies advanced combat optical gun sights to
the New Zealand armed forces and it is believed that guns
carried by the SAS in Afghanistan may be equipped with the
"Jesus sights".
So, whether the arming of the SAS in such as way was
inadvertent or not, the thought might be entertained by
members of the Taliban - whom, incidentally Mr Bush claimed
had been defeated in that same victory speech way back in
2003 - that our soldiers are involved in a holy war against
Islam.
That of course is what Islamic activists have been claiming
for many years now.
And faced with the rhetoric, the alliance between the
Neo-cons and fundamentalist Christians in the Republican
Government of the day, and the US arms industry, which
together perpetrated the invasion of Iraq, who could blame
them?
There has been much talk of the danger into which Corporal
Willie Apiata, VC, has been placed by having his photograph
plastered all over the New Zealand media recently - seen in
action on the streets of Kabul during a recent engagement
with insurgents.
War is dangerous.
All of the SAS stationed in Afghanistan are in a war zone and
are thus permanently in danger.
Nonetheless, the army is upset that the photo of Cpl Apiata
was published in The New Zealand Herald and various Fairfax
papers, and on the TV channels and websites, arguing that it
will have endangered his life, and that the media has broken
a long-standing protocol.
In the grand scheme of things, that is all debatable.
Less so is that the possession of scripture-encoded sights on
their Christianised weapons - something of an oxymoron one
would have thought - is much more likely to ensure the Kiwi
SAS are a target.
Thankfully, and quite rightly, the Government has ordered the
inscriptions to be removed.
Simon Cunliffe is assistant editor at the Otago Daily
Times.
