Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Back in 2004, the then Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, reported on a very interesting conversation he had had with George Bush. Referring to the “War on Terrorism” (otherwise known as the War on Flanking Maneuvers) Bush told Abbas that: “God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the US elections will come and I will have to focus on them (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=310788&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y).” (Well, Bush hasn’t done squat all about the Israel/Palestine conflict since the US 2004 elections either, but let’s not quibble.) On October 19 past, President Ahmadinejad of Iran told us that: “I Have a Connection With God, Since God Said That the Infidels Will Have No Way to Harm the Believers (MEMRI, Special Dispatch-Iran, as reported by Iran News, 10-19-06).” And so there we have it, a solution to the “Iran Crisis.” Both national leaders talk with the one God. Hopefully, the one God they talk to is the same one. Hopefully he/she will now tell both of them, “cool it, brothers. You have got to talk this thing out.” And then hopefully, since Bush will now know that he and Ahmadinejad both talk with God, Bush will pick up the phone and say, “You know, after my latest conversation with the almighty, who sends his (or her) best regards, I now know that we must talk first, bomb later, rather than the other way round. How about lunch?”
