Rebuttals to the president never make the same splash as the original comment, and can't compete with lines like: "The Sandanistas could drive up the road into Texas tomorrow and invade our country" The fact that this argument was used to justify funding and arming the "contras" terrorists without being questioned by a majority of the American public says something right there about the power of the Oval Office as a propaganda tool.

It has always surprised me Mr. Bush, how a country that claims to be the birthplace of free speech and individuality can be so easily seduced by the power of a title. The reverence that your office is treated with rivals that of the divine right of Kings, which stated that they ruled through the will of God. Perhaps that's what you and your adherents believe about you and your office. I don't know.

For no other reason than you are the President, Mr. Bush, if tomorrow you got up and said, black is white and white is black, your word would be taken as gospel by the majority of your country. That's no matter how many times it has been proven that you've lied in the past, or even just been wrong, it doesn't seem to matter.

Mr. Bush, you, and by extension your constituents, seem to take it as a personal affront whenever anyone thinks that just because something is in America's best interests, that doesn't mean it's in the best interests of the rest of the world. You refuse to participate in anything that might end up ruling against you, like the World Court, by claiming it's controlled by anti-American sympathisers.

You've convinced the people of your country that everyone is out to get them. They really can't trust anyone except themselves to do the right thing for America, and what's right for America is the only thing that matters. Don't you understand how much that frightens and angers people in other parts of the world?

Mr. Bush, by saying things like that, and acting from that position, you make it come true. Why do you want that sort of world to exist? Why have you geared your whole propaganda machine to convincing your people that they are under continual attack by forces they can't see, and that only you can protect them from?

Please don't take this the wrong way Mr. Bush; I don't hate America or its people. Your country represents some of the finest ideals that have ever resonated throughout human history. The only problem is that none of them seem to be on display anymore. In the name of freedom, democracy, and human rights, you have gradually eroded those very principles in the guise of protection.