One could argue that God is responsible for the recent conflicts the United States is involved in. In Afghanistan God told the Taliban that they should subjugate women to the role of second class citizens. God told the Taliban that al Qaeda was on his side. God told the Taliban to make sure that infidels should pay the price for being infidels. So, when God told Osama bin Laden to have his secret cells in the US to fly fuel laden jets into the Pentagon, World Trade Center and White House we shouldn't be surprised, it seems like a natural extension of the things that God wills.
So, when God told George W Bush to invade Iraq it also shouldn't come as a surprise. God seems to be a violent sort. If we look through the Old Testament we see many incidents of God telling the Hebrews to fight for their rights. Many people died in these battles, but the morals of the battles seemed to be faith yields victory...
...The side in the battle that had the greatest faith would always win the battle. When David killed Goliath it was against all odds, but David had faith. So, when God tells al Qaeda to attack the US and the response is God telling George W Bush to invade Iraq. And, then God tells al Qaeda to go to Iraq and defend the people in Iraq He is simply setting the stage for the typical test of faith that He has always done through out the Bible.
But, one thing bothers me about this.
When God sent Jesus to Earth to show the world a new way God did not test Jesus' faith in War. Maybe because God already knew that Jesus had infinitely strong faith he realized that if Jesus had been summoned to fight the Roman occupation it would have been an unfair fight. After all, since Jesus was God he could have performed an instantaneous miracle that would defeat the Romans in one fell swoop and that wouldn't be sporting.
But Jesus, who is believed to be God on Earth by many went beyond saying that it would have been an unfair fight. In fact, Jesus was teaching a new way deeply soaked with love. He didn't tell us to go fight sinners, he said to love sinners. He told us to love God above all others and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
So, how do we reconcile Jesus as God teaching us to love our neighbor and turn the other cheek with the God who tells the people to fight in order to test their faith? Could it be that God's will was evolving over time? Certainly that can't be true, because God is perfect and doesn't need to change, right? So, if God didn't change then what changed? Obviously man must have changed with the coming of Jesus. When God came to Earth and lived as a man he showed man how he should live, right? Or, maybe God living through Jesus had experienced living as man and therefore experiences human love in a new way.
I believe that the whole problem here is that people don't and will never fully understand what happened when Jesus tried to teach us. Every person who has every thought about Jesus and his mission on Earth knows that something special happened, but every person's understanding of this major event is clouded by personal experience. Therefore not one human can understand the full extent of Jesus' mission. This is not to say that some people haven't understood parts of his mission. If fact, that is what happens all the time. People understand part of what Jesus taught and they use one part or another as a blueprint for living.
This brings us back to Iraq. Supporters of the idea that people with the most faith will win the battle simply cherry pick the evidence from the Bible that justifies this concept. The supporters of fighting in Iraq sincerely believe that they are right, because they have cheery picked facts to support their justification. But they downplay the facts that Jesus was proclaimed the Prince of Peace and advocated turning the other cheek. But, when someone wants to justify something that they want to do to will find the evidence that supports what they want to do and ignore the calls from religious leaders telling them to give peace a chance. They ignore the CIA facts that doubted how serious a threat that Saddam Hussein was. They deny UN inspectors from doing their job. And they read the Bible, Intelligence Reports, and Psychological Profiles with an eye on the prize. And, it shouldn't be a surprise!