Evangelist Robertson Warned Bush of “Casualties” in Iraq, but President “Refused” to Listen

casualties in Iraq, but that the president refused, United States media reported Wednesday, October 20.

Robertson, the founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and the U.S. Christian Coalition stressed Bush told him last year he saw no reasons to warn the U.S. public as "we’re not going to have any casualties."        

Now more than 1,100 killed American soldiers later, Robertson said he wishes Bush would admit to mistakes made.

"I mean, the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy," Robertson told the U.S. Cable News Network (CNN).

"I warned him about casualties," added Robertson, who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1988.

He stressed that during their 2003 conversation in Nashville, Tennessee, before the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq,  Bush appeared "the most self-assured man I’ve ever met in my life."

However "I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say,  ‘Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties,’ "Robertson said on the CNN show, "Paula Zahn Now." The White House refused to comment.
 
MORE KILLED

Robertson spoke shortly after four Iraqis and a U.S. contractor were killed and 87 people injured in two mortar attacks on security posts in Iraq, military sources said. In Baghdad, CARE International’s country director, Margaret Hassan, was kidnapped.
 
U.S. warplanes conducted two separate air strikes west of Baghdad in the rebellious city of Fallujah,
seen as a stronghold of insurgents, terror networks and remnants of the old regime of Saddam Hussein.

The military said it destroyed safe houses and a command and control center believed to have been used by followers of wanted militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. As many as six people were killed in the air strikes, including a family, news reports said

British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned that the U.S. and Britain are facing more attacks from terrorist groups attempting to destabilize Iraq ahead of elections due in January.

"We are about to enter a period of increased activity in Iraq," Blair told lawmakers during his weekly question time in the House of Commons in London, the Bloomberg news agency reported.

IRAQI ELECTIONS

"This has nothing to do with the American elections and everything to do with the Iraqi elections in January," Blair reportedly said. Human rights groups have also expressed concern that representatives of Iraq’s estimated 750,000 Christians will be increasingly targeted, after five Christian churches in Baghdad were firebombed early on Saturday,  October 16. 

The bombings prompted new Vatican concern about the fate of Iraqi Christian communities who make up about 3 percent of the country’s 25 million people. No one was injured or killed, but several of the churches were reported to be badly damaged.

Syrian Catholic Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa of Mosul, Iraq, who was in Bangkok, Thailand, at the time of the latest bombing, expressed shock and sorrow at the news. One of the churches bombed in August was in Mosul.

PERSECUTION CHRISTIANS

The terrorist groups that carry out such attacks "hope that many, many more Christians will go," he told Catholic News Service. "Their strategy is to create fear among the Christians and push them out of Iraq," he said. Islamic militants have accused Christians of supporting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.

Although Evangelist Robertson is concerned about the situation and had "misgivings" over the war and the Iraqi operations, he made clear he would encourage the millions of evangelical voters to re-elect Bush.

"Even if he stumbles and messes up — and he’s had his share of stumbles and gaffes — I just think God’s blessing is on him," Robertson said.  As for Bush’s Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry, Robertson said, "I don’t think he’s a leader. He’s a ponderous debater, a good senator probably."

Although Kerry won all television debates with his rival, according to media commentators, Bush still has a slight edge in most opinion polls, ahead of the upcoming November 2 presidential elections.