God.

That’s right. God.

Just about anytime somebody in a position of power does something incredibly stupid, unbelievably arrogant or outrageously illegal they usually claim it was “God’s will.”

The Almighty must feel persecuted as hell.

Let’s remember that Osama and his goons said they were serving Allah when they commandeered those jets on September 11, 2001, and sent them crashing into the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon.

George W. Bush swears he hears God talking to him in his head, which violates the accepted theory that sound cannot carry in a vacuum. But Dubya says God told him it was all right to send American military might to Iraq and kill everybody with a towel on their head, not to mention journalists, Italians and anybody else who might wonder into the line of fire. And the 1700 plus Americans who have died over there did so, he says, at God’s bidding.

But let’s be fair. Bush is not the first misguided leader to implicate a deity in his or her failures. Despots, dictators and madmen throughout history have claimed intimate relations with religious icons to justify their actions.

These days, however, God gets the rap for a lot of things.

For example, the right-wing nuts who control the Republican Party and – unfortunately – our government always swear they are on a mission from God to justify any and all of the excesses they try to inflict on the American people.

It could be an outright ban on abortion, the placement of a concrete edifice in a courthouse lobby or the shameless political manipulation of a family’s private tragedy over a feeding tube. They are, we are told, always serving God’s agenda.

Problem is, given all the different political agendas of these agents from God, even he (or she) would have trouble keeping up with the conflicts.

The right-to-lifers, among the major abusers of God and religion, claim life is sacred to them but the extreme elements of their movement applaud the efforts of those who bomb abortion clinics, too often killing innocent victims, or sing the praises of those who kill doctors who perform abortions.

As I recall, that commandment that said we shall not kill did not have an amendment that said it was all right to kill those who disagree with us.

Like all fanatics, Bible-thumpers never let hypocrisy stand in the way of their agenda. They use God and the teachings of their religion to justify any action that fits their warped view of the world and then disregard the teachings of that same religion when it doesn’t fit.

In politics, if it doesn’t fit, you must omit.

But let’s remember that misguided religious fanatics come in all shapes, sizes, colors and beliefs.

Osama bin Laden is a religious fanatic who misconstrues the teachings of his religion to justify the murder of his enemies.

And so is George W. Bush.