The US congress has certainly come a long way since the days of John C. Calhoun and John Quincy Adams. Amy Goodman and Jackson Thoreau have both reported that congressman Sam Johnson (R-Texas) has called on president Bush to nuke Syria. Thoreau quotes Johnson as having said (at a church gathering, of all places – are these our old pals the Fundies?);
“Syria is the problem. Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know, I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on ’em and I’ll make one pass. We won’t have to worry about Syria anymore.”
Thoreau says the church crowd “roared with applause”. Now, I’m sure the administration is not seriously thinking about dropping the bomb on Syria, and that Johnson can’t possibly be the homicidal maniac he sounds like here. But this is still extremely inappropriate language for any US Representative to be using at this particular moment. What are the Syrians supposed to think?
And shame on this allegedly Christian (I’m assuming it’s some branch of Christianity) crowd for cheering Johnson. Do you suppose Christ would have cheered?