Completely and Utterly Delusional

Are these two insane? George Bush and Tony Blair had a huddle in Washington yesterday. When it was over, both came out to meet reporters and to speak of "victory" in Iraq.

The prospect of some sort of victory for America and Britain in Iraq has been thoroughly discredited. This war was probably lost at the outset. That didn't stop most Americans from believing in victory, "mission accomplished", for a while but their belief eventually gave way to reality, costing the Republicans both houses of congress in the November elections.

"We will defeat the extremists and radicals and help a young democracy prevail in the Middle East," Mr Bush said in a long statement at the start of the press conference.

Mr Blair thanked the president for the "clarity of your vision" and called Iraq a "mission we have to succeed in and can succeed in".

Clarity of vision? Perhaps, however, Messrs. Bush and Blair have indeed had a 'vision' of the type understood in their Christian fundamentalist belief. George Bush does believe he is acting out God's will, he really does. He believes himself an instrument of God. There's no getting around this, he actually believes his decisions are divinely inspired.

If you believe that every decision you take is a manifestation of God's will, how can you not believe in victory? The litany of setbacks can be dismissed as God working in mysterious ways or some similar nonsense. Don't worry, there's a divine plan behind the whole sorry business.

We've had six years to learn of Bush's messianic delusions. He even revealed it to Paul Martin.

If the president's religious fanatacism causes him to disconnect from reality this is immensely serious. Somebody needs to be checking this guy out.

Don't think this is alarmist. Leaders under great pressure have been known to embrace delusion instead of reality. In his final days in office, Nixon's staff made sure he couldn't use his presidential authority to launch a war. Kissinger made sure the nuclear 'football' was put away for safekeeping - from his own president. Hitler's final months were an extreme case of delusional government that followed him straight into his bunker. Remember, neither of these guys thought they were directly connected to God.

Is George Bush alone, isolated and delusional? I'm not giving him the benefit of the doubt.