Couriier Post

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071006/OPINION/710060317/1047

When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a figurehead with little actual power, rattles his saber, President Bush gives him legitimacy by rattling his saber right back.

Both men are extremely unpopular within their own countries and although formally educated -- Ahmadinejad has a Ph.D. and Bush an MBA -- they behave like belligerent megalomaniacs unwilling to negotiate for the good of mankind. Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of Israel and denial of the Holocaust makes it impossible for rational people to take him seriously.

Likewise, Bush's name-calling such as "Axis of Evil" and requests to "bring it on" strengthen his base but frighten the world. Bush is using the same scare tactics and misinformation about Iran that he used to sell the Iraq invasion, while Congress has apparently learned nothing.

Will they acquiesce and again abdicate their authority without hearings, investigations or proof? Tyrannical leaders worldwide terrorize their own people; ours, however, exports tyranny to other nations.

We voted last fall to end the killing and dying. Must we now stand by and watch Bush spread devastation to yet another country?