Tell us again, Dubya, why do they hate us?

Some will argue that comparing Bush to Saddam is an unfair exaggeration. Maybe. But look at it from an Iraqi point of view.

The Bush Administration continues to vehemently insist that America must be allowed to torture prisoners. No matter how you discuss it, rationalize it, or define it, Bush is asserting an obvious double-standard that any knucklehead in the world can see.

The BA also insists it must be able to maintain "black sites" around the world where Iraqis (anybody, really) can be interrogated in total secrecy, beyond any means of oversight. Are the Iraqis supposed to feel comforted that they're being abducted without due process by Americans instead of Ba'athists? Tell that to the Iraqis.

And now we see that the U.S. military has been using chemical weapons against Iraqi people. Most notably, white phospherous. Oh sure, the military splits hairs and says WP isn't technically a "chemical weapon" or that it's not on any official lists and all that jive. It makes not a whit of difference. Iraqi skin is being "melted off the bone" by American attacks.

You can plunge as deeply into Clintonian semantics as you wish, but it makes NO DIFFERENCE to the victims how you categorize the chemicals that are used as a weapon to kill them. Or who abducts them. Or who tortures them.

Secret arrests, torture chambers, attacks using chemicals... Apparently Dubya didn't go over there to liberate the Iraqi's from Saddam's cruelty. He just liberated them from Saddam. And so far, that's a distinction without a difference.