By the way, the new Afghan president

[oboe]

Hamid Karzai, took an Oath of Allegiance to defend Islam last night before he was sworn in as President.  I watched it myself and was surprised to see it.

Defending Islam will be his highest duty, more important than defending the country.  I have to assume it indicates that Islamic religious leaders will be pulling the strings of government power.


I also read somewhere that Karzai considers fighting the opium drug cartels more important than finding Osama Bin Laden.   I hate to see OSB free and unpursued.   He must be laughing his prettythang off at us.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by oboe
Hamid Karzai, took an Oath of Allegiance to defend Islam last night before he was sworn in as President.  I watched it myself and was surprised to see it.
 

Our presidents make an oath to God, so whats different?

[oboe]

It wasn't an oath to God - it was a pledge to defend Islam.
An odd thing for a head of state to swear to, in my mind.

We don't make our Presidents swear to uphold Christianity.   Not sure of the words to our oath, but I imagine it goes something along the lines of swearing to uphold the Constitution, so help him God.  Something like that, right?

Very different than what Karzai swore to, and not only that, it was a distinctly separate oath from the oath to office.    I was looking on google from the text of the oath of Alligience to Islam but no one carried it to that detail.

[jEEZY]

Our presidents make an oath to God, so whats different?

not really

[SLO]

as long as the pipeline goes thru his territory(country) he can do whatever he wants...

and who is this OBL guy:p

[-tronski-]

Must be great being the president of Kabul

 Tronsky

[Lizking]

Check the vote tallies again, Trots.

[Thrawn]

Yes Lizking but I'm sure we both know that the UN forces only control the 8 provinces surrounding Kabul.  However they will be trying to expand that shortly by sending forces into the outlying provinces.  

I have great hope for this process, though it will be very dangerous.

[Lizking]

So did the vote cover the country or was it Kabul?

[Holden McGroin]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Our presidents make an oath to God, so whats different?

Jeezy's right..

Art 2 section 1"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."  

The "So help me God" is not consitutionally mandated, it is added optionally.  Truman ended his oath with, "And thus I swear."

[Yeager]

One thing you will never see in your lifetime is Osama Bin Laden speaking in public.

He is destined to spend the rest of his life in a serious state of hiding, however long that is.

[SunTracker]

President Bush says God told him to invade Iraq.  Someone please hand him a biology textbook...

[Holden McGroin]

Do you have a link to that statement?

[SunTracker]

No, I remember watching him say it, perhaps during one of the debates.  He talked about praying to God and then saying that God told him to invade.  

George Bush is a born again Christian.  Are you surprised he said that?

[Momus--]

..President Bush had told him this: " God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam [ Hussein], which I did..

Originally reported in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, repeated here in the Washinton Post: link

It wasn't an oath to God - it was a pledge to defend Islam. An odd thing for a head of state to swear to, in my mind.

Why? The country's full name is "The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan". The government is supposed to be Islamic in nature. They don't enjoy the nominal separation of church and state the US enjoys.