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President George W Bush told Palestinian ministers that God had told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq - and create a Palestinian State, according to a BBC TV series.

Nabil Shaath, Palestinian Foreign Minister in 2003, told of his 2003 meeting with Bush:

"President Bush said to us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

I was hoping this might be a joke, maybe a delayed April Fool, but it checks out. I hadn't realised things were quite this bad.

And now I'm even wondering if this joke I heard about Bush is really a joke at all: unkind people say that Bush doesn't understand anything about world geography, but as soon as his staff told him about bird flu, he gave the order to bomb the Canary Islands and Turkey.