Rev. Wright's Hits Keep on Coming

Campaign Spot has new excerpts from 2001 and 2003 sermons by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that haven't previously been published. The excerpts previously released clearly were not isolated examples:

Jeremiah Wright: ‘We cannot see that what we are doing is the same as al-Qaeda, under a different color flag.'

Hugh Hewitt offers new audio of two sermons of Jeremiah Wright, one from September 2001 and one from April 2003.

Permit me to propose a new rule: If your mentor of 20 years has ever declared the United States to be ‘the same as al-Qaeda, under a different color flag, calling on the name a different God to sanction and approve our murder and our mayhem!’ you are ineligible for the Presidency.

In the first excerpt, Wright urges his congregations to say with him, "enemies," as he describes Jesus' enemies, "a provisional government with all of the political power and an occupying army."

Wright describes Roman soldiers who mistreated Jesus as "Commandos.. trained in urban command and trained to kill on command... the Third Marine Regiment of Rome," and that Jesus was mistreated "as a prisoner of war."

He describes the Roman presence in Jerusalem as "Operation Israeli Freedom." (So in this America-as-Rome metaphor, is Abu Zarqawi Jesus?)

"It was the Italian Army that led Jesus to Calvary Friday morning."

...

The second cut: "The military does not make for peace. The military only keeps the lid on for a while... The absence of armed resistance foes not mean the presence of peace."

"Fighting for peace is like raping for virginity."

"War only makes for escalating violence."

"Military might doesn't make for peace. Occupying and killing those who fought to protect their own homes does not make for peace! Press conferences claiming victory do not make for peace! Regime change, substituting one tyrant for another tyrant, with the biggest tryant pulling the puppet strings of all the tyrants, does not make for peace! Colonization does not make for peace! If you don't believe me look at Haiti, look at Puerto Rico, look at Angola, look at Zimbabwe, look at Kenya, look at [hard to make out what he's saying, something like "astra boys"?] in South Africa! Colonization does not make for peace, occupation does not make for peace, and subjugation only makes a temporary silence... it does not make for peace."

The third cut: "A lot of people still confuse, 2000 years later, they still confuse God with their government... We can see clearly the confusion in the minds of a few Muslims - and please notice that I did not say all, I said a few Muslims - who see Allah as condoning killing those who do not believe what they believe. They call it jihad."

"We can see clearly the confusion in their minds but we cannot see clearly what it is that we do. We call it 'Crusade.' When we turn right around and say that our God condones the killing of innocent civilians as a necessary means to an end. We say that God understands collateral damn damage. We say that God knows how to forgive friendly fire. We say that God will bless the shock and awe as we take over unilaterally another country, calling it a coalition because we got three guys from Australia. Goin' against the United Nations, goin' against a majority of Christians, Muslims, and Jews, throughout the world, making a preemptive strike in the name of God. We cannot see how what we are doing is the same thing al-Qaeda is doing under a different color flag, calling on the name a different God to sanction and approve our murder and our mayhem!"

I know, I know. There we go again, forming an opinion of the man based on "snippets."

I said long ago that until Barack Obama completely repudiates the Rev. Wright and makes a clean break from him, his sermons will be fair game for use against Obama (whether John McCain likes it or not).