"Buddy Christ" in Iraq

Here's a weird but revelatory story. In Baghdad today, American troops raided a "suspected militia member's home. They left behind the usual accidental corpses -- "a woman and a girl," we're told -- as well as a strange icon, apparently meant to indicate the attacker's mind-set.

The "Buddy Christ" image first appeared in the film Dogma, Kevin Smith's raunchy-but-affectionate satire of All Things Catholic.

Our president still insists, when pressed, that he intends no harm toward Islam per se; his anger, we are told, is directed only toward "Islamofascists." But for his troops, literal and metaphorical, religious hatred is the only motivating force left. One doesn't have to surf many right-wing sites to find the sort of anti-Islamic propaganda that would have been unthinkable even four years ago.

"Buddy Christ" was originally intended to parody Christianity, or at least that sector of Christianity which would transform Jesus into a cloying, commercialized corporate icon. Iraqis, who have a limited knowledge of American popular culture, must have felt pretty confused to see what they would consider an insulting image of Jesus. I'm rather more familiar with American popular culture, and even I am bewildered.

To Iraqis, "thumbs up" means "up your ass," or so I've read. Perhaps the troops wanted to convey the message that a vengeful Jesus smirks in callous triumph at all enemies of Bush, including the woman and child killed as "collateral damage"...? If so, one wonders how these "Christian" sickos plan to explain themselves at the seat of Judgment. Even the Crusaders managed to treat both Islam and their own faith with greater dignity.