Beating the Bush around

Bush said a new democracy is arising in Iraq where there once was tyranny.

"We're sick of the sectarian violence. We believe if you stand with us, we can achieve our objective of becoming a democracy that listens to the people'," Bush said.

"And I believe them. And I believe them. And I told them, I said, 'Look, it's going to be up to you to make it work, but you can count on the United States of America, because we believe in liberty and the capacity of liberty to change lives and to change a neighbourhood for a more peaceful tomorrow'."

Lies, lies and more lies.

The real tyrant here is the guy himself.

In 2003, George W. Bush, owing to the collapse of the Democratic opposition, shifted the base of American foreign policy from containment-deterrence to presidential preventive war: Be silent; I see it, if you don’t.

Observers describe Bush as ‘messianic’ in his conviction that he is fulfilling the "divine purpose".

There is no more dangerous thing for a democracy than a foreign policy based on presidential preventive war.

The next case in point is Bush's appointment last week of the next two public trustees for Social Security and Medicare.

Normally, those positions require confirmation by the Senate but leaders from both parties had made it clear they objected to the president's choices.

He went ahead and installed his candidates while Congress was in recess anyway. Even when the law wisely requires that the two public trustees come from different parties. The Senate has never allowed any pair to serve repeated terms.

So who's the tyrant here, huh?