Whenever I see George Bush making a speech on TV, I can’t help but think how Mr. Bush is any different from Hitler or Stalin. Think about all the bombings, shootings and killings. His litany of destruction and contempt for life is truly staggering to consider. Bush is the closest thing to a dictator that America has ever seen. Immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia are consistently watched and monitored by goons working for the Bush administration. And believe it or not, the CIA has swept up innocent immigrants and deported them to U.S. administered dungeons throughout the world. Who says the American justice system should be a model of liberty throughout the world? Were you aware that it is now legal for U.S. courts to use evidence obtained from war prisoners through extreme coercion? What is extreme coercion? Simply put: torture. To me, this is madness. Some of the previous methods of torture employed by those working under Mr. Bush in U.S. prisons include: chaining prisoners in the fetal position for 24 hours without access to a toilet, sexual harassment, electric shock and inserting lit cigarettes into prisoners’ ears, just to name a few.

Mr. Bush not only treats the people of the world with contempt, but he also treats his own people the same way. Let’s think about what happened in New Orleans after the passage of Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of inner-city residents were left homeless with neither food nor water, sweltering under a hot sun for several days. Great job, George! Well, out of many wrong doings of Mr. Bush, his greatest crime was the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation. He told the world that Iraqis were a threat. But personally, I think that was only his sole opinion. What really bothers me is this. Before the invasion, Bush had the gall to tell the world that if Saddam Hussein chooses confrontation, his government will take every measure to avoid war. This was a big fat lie. He had his mind set on war even before 9/11, and was trying to figure out every excuse in the book to attack Iraq. He wanted a fight, and, by God, he got it.

Richard Nixon, a big crook in America’s presidential history, was pardoned by President Ford and never punished for his lying. William Clinton lied to the American people about having an affair with an intern in the White House. But look at him now. He couldn’t be more popular. But these crimes are chump change compared to the depredations of Mr. Bush. Will this dictator ever be punished? Maybe someday, but people of the world would agree that time won’t be anytime soon.

Columnist Alicia Lee