Does anyone but me find this to be an odd matchup? “Do you dislike the stateless terrorist leader of worldwide Jihad, the rogue dictator of a closed communist society boxed-in by UN sanctions, the puppet president for the Grand Ayatollah of an Islamist state, the leader of Jew-hating Hesbolah, or that stinking Bush?” Does that seem a little loaded? Maybe it was fill in the blank and these are the 5 names that came up.

This poll is so typical of the news creation that it was intended to be. “I want to write a story about how everyone hates the US and Bush, so I will load a poll, get back the responses that only such a poll could get, and I have my story.” Simple.

Bush is the president of the United States, leader of the lone world super power. Who are the others? How many nations depend on their navies, armies, commerce, businesses, charities, etc? The US navy ensures the world’s trade on the oceans and seas. The US army is the largest contingent on the side of freedom and transparency in any of the major world conflicts. US businesses employ directly or through trade more people than the businesses of any other country. US charities give more than those in any other country. The US won the most vicious wars in history when its allies were struggling without its involvement. US presidents have more responsibility and accountability to their countrymen and have more responsibility to other nations through agreements or a sense of humanity than the leaders of any nation on this Earth.

The United States is like Gulliver the giant among smaller nations with lines attached to it by everyone in the world. Every time the US gets up to move, the whole world feels it for good or bad. If the giant is staring at the sun, the rest of the world is standing in the shade. When the giant is roused to its own defense, the world shakes under its stomp as it squashes the offender.

The US is also like the dam blocking up the world’s hatred and desire to dominate one another. If you don’t believe me, what happened when the US left South-East Asia? Killing fields, communist expansion, enslavement, forced starvation, purges of dissidents, and on and on. All but one of the mainland South-East Asian countries fell to communism and dictatorship. What happened to China when the US left it to itself after liberation from the Japanese? The fall of a nascent republic trying to to get up on its feet and a “cultural revolution” that wiped out 30 million as a low estimate under Mao.

Of course the US is dangerous, in that it wields the biggest stick and juggles the most torches. It is also the least dangerous for the same reason. It is disingenuous to represent this obvious fact with a statement that the US is more scary than Kim Jong Il or the other wackjobs in the poll. The question should have been, “Who would you rather be president of the lone super power? Bush, Bin Ladin, Kim Jong Il, Ahmadinejad, or Nasrallah.? Who would you fear most to criticize openly? In whose captivity would you rather be? Fortunately, even if Bush were the worst human being since Stallin, we could fire him and force him to live on the lecture circuit for the rest of his life. Who can fire the others?

“The US invades other nations!” Yeah and the UN doesn’t, not even after 12 years of promising action. Somehow, we fight only for oil though our supply lines remain the same no matter who we invade. We are imperialistic with our Big Macs and that makes us evil. After all, the world could soon look like our plump population if we continue this madness. Who controls Germany today? Japan? Panama? We give back everything we conquer and we treat the wounds of all that we injure in ours and the world’s defense. We are not a benevolent dictator, but a benevolent parliament. We let nations try their own war criminals and decide their own fate when our job is done.

Can anyone honestly argue what the guardian article is eluding to? George Bush and the United States are the scariest among tyrants, terrorists, and nations. I guess some could argue that. Tyrants, terrorists, and rogue nations could argue that.

Consequently, the only country also polled that really has likely credible working knowledge of Ahmadinejad’s or Nasrallah’s daily doings is Israel and they ranked Bush favorably and the others not—Britain, Canada, Mexico, and Israel were polled.