Maybe in some parallel universe of justice, Sharon and Dubya are both convicted war criminals and are sharing the same cell.

How many thousand innocents have they killed? How many lies have they told? Have there ever been two nastier and more inept leaders of their respective countries?

Ya know, the older I get the more frustrated I become with people who

either don't think deeply or can't think deeply about important issues of

the day. This knee-jerk liberalism based on propoganda with no thought to cracking open a book before opening one's mouth gives the democrats and their lefty surrogates a very bad, smelly reputation.

Our current President is not a war criminal. He may be incompotent, he may be a liar, he may even be the kind of moron that he seems to be in public, but he is not a war criminal. He has the right under international law to put our troops into harm's way if he believes our lives are in danger. Whether you agree with him or not, it's his job to protect us as best he can and he has the law on his side.

Likewise, Ariel Sharon grew up alongside Arabs who torched Jewish villages and killed and maimed Jews in public whenever they felt like it. He was a valiant warrior in all of the many wars he fought to keep the Arabs from killing as many Jews as possible, something they publicize in books, speeches, and television programs. You can disagree with his ideals, his ethics, and his politics if you want to. But before you call him an anti-humanitarian or a war criminal, take a trip to the burn clinic of Hadassah hospital or visit with someone who's had her arms blown off by a terrorist or talk to someone whose wife and kids were torched as they went shopping at a mall.

There are many ugly realities that liberals avoid by being blind, uneducated, and far removed from the bloody onslaught of reality. Ariel Sharon, like other leaders in a war, have had to make unpalatible choices to defend his own. I defy anyone to live in Israel for a year and come to different conclusions.

At the risk of turning the Salon letters column into yet another dreary flame war, Jpincus should know the following facts:

1) I've read numerous books on the Middle East, and specifically the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

2) A good case could be made for Bush being a war criminal. Illegally invading another state, and using false "evidence" to justify a "pre-emptive war" (its a very problematic concept under International law) is a good place to start.

3) Ariel Sharon grew up within a society determined to establish a nation built upon the land of the native population. It was fully prepared and equipped to use terrorism and force to accomplish its aims, and it did just that.

4) Sharon the "valiant warrior" was responsible for numerous atrocities throughout his career. For example, as early as 1953 whilst leading the reprisal Unit 101, Sharon was responsible for the deaths of some 60-70 people in Qibya - the majority women and children.

5) I've spent many a miserable hour listening to the stories of the bereaved and the mutilated and the tortured and the otherwise damaged on both sides of this vile colonial war.

6) "Blind, uneducated, and far removed from the onslaught of reality" is a good desription of the knee-jerk "Israel right or wrong" mentality of a small but loud and influential part of the US Jewish community and its strange Christian fundamentalist bedfellows.

Both these men have a personal history that is filled with incidents of cruelty and sociopathy.

Sharon enjoys abusing his positions of power to kill his victims personally. And Lil Georgie enjoys his death warrants and torture applications in a more vicarious manner. But both are truly inhumane sociopaths who have been given the power to indulge their perversiopns at great cost to the human community.

That you're all retelling the past instead of thinking of the future. After all, 'warcriminal' is a lot like 'nigger'. It's meant to stop all conversation dead in its tracks.