The president has recently seen his poll numbers plummet. Likely the result of the Iraqi prison abuse scandal, many are now reconsidering their opinions of Mr. Bush and his “brave” policies. As much as the abuse of Iraqi prisoners turns my stomach (and confirms certain suspicions I had about this administration’s respect for human rights), there are many reasons this president should be limited to a single term.

Displaying only myopia and hubris in his foreign policy, Bush has single-handedly delivered the United States into a war that cannot be won. America cannot at once be occupier and liberator. If the events on the ground aren’t convincing, compare the terms in the dictionary. They are antithetical.

Dishonesty and collusion initiated the war in Iraq, and both remain at its core. It is only now with the images of actual abuse that the public has become outraged. Sadly, it should have flowed when it became clear that we were taken to war under false pretenses.

No campaign to bring democracy to an oppressed people will ever succeed if it rests on the precarious foundation of deceit and domination. Americans and Iraqis are now paying for Bush’s misdirected policies in blood and dishonor. And for those who say the prison abuse scandal is merely the work of a “few bad apples,” I would counter by saying: an apple never falls far from the tree.

Matthew David Deschaine, Auburn

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