I read an interesting article in today's paper entitled "Bush cites Lenin, Hitler in rebuking Democrats." He says: "History teaches us that underestimating the words of evil, ambitious men is a terrible mistake. Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. And the question is, will we listen?"

There is so much wrong with this statement that it's hard to pick it apart one by one for fear of ending up with a three-page blog entry. But, I'll do my best.

My first reaction was utter confusion at this statement, and after a few seconds, I realized it was because there is no logical line one can draw between totalitarian dictators of their own states who actually held complete political power and a man hiding in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan who serves as Bush's only leverage in keeping Americans afraid of some sort of future terrorist attack and thus enabling him to pass legislation that strips American citizens of more and more of their privacy and freedom while giving our government a frightening amount of control and power. Hitler and Lenin actually held political office and used their positions to manipulate and control people, so that ultimately they ended up with the power to decide who was in and who was out, who was friend and who was foe, who lived and who died, who could be considered a citizen and who was to be cast out as alien. They held the power to decide what was printed in the media, and what language to use to brainwash people and force them to think a certain way. They designed their governments so that everything came under their control - the power to invade people's homes and privacy, the power to deem a harmless citizen a threat to the security of the state based on arbitrary criteria of their own design, the power to dictate people's jobs, incomes, lifestyles.

Bin Laden, on the other hand, lives in hiding and has control over a small, select group of extremist rebels. He exerts no political power over a nation and does not act as a dictator over a government or state. Yes, he brainwashes people, but rather than working to exert power and control over his own country and people, he works against a country thousands of miles away on a different continent. His enemy does not live on his own soil. His control, unlike that of Lenin and Hitler, has nothing to do with a certain state or nation. He is not trying to run his own country in whatever way he wants to with the only citizens being those whom he hand-picks. He is not trying to rid a country of people who do not conform to his own made-up, arbitrary standards. He's just trying to rid the world of stupid, ignorant Americans who have the audacity to think they are doing Iraqi citizens a favor by blowing up their country for no good reason, taking their oil, forcing American ideals onto citizens of a completely different culture, then punishing them for being a square peg that can't fit into a round hole.

Bin Laden's intentions, though they may be as clear as Bush seems to think they are, are nothing like those of Lenin or Hitler. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that. However, when one considers the current trends in American anti-terrorism policy and presidential rhetoric, one must ask if our own president's intentions aren't as clear as those evil, ambitious men of history whom he so eloquently quotes.