There is an incumbent Western politician who reminds me of Ehud Barak even more: our own war leader. Whatever one may say about his pursuit of those he blames for the Arab attacks on us of last September, GW Bush has similar blind spots.

His dogmatic insistence on the blessings of mass immigration, legal and otherwise, and the delights of diversity, from which he of course is shielded, make him his own enemy. Should he get what he says he wants with respect to amnesties for Mexican illegal aliens, guest worker programs for yet more Mexicans (and who believes it would stop with Mexicans?) and the like, he will hit into a catastrophic double play: At one and the same time, destroy his own political party as a national force and - while trying to boost that party’s fortunes - go a long way to destroying this country as a nation.

Sadly for him, the Mexicans and others who will be squatting in the ruins of the United States GWB’s ancestors helped found and he failed to preserve won’t be grateful - they don’t care much for gringos, even ones who throw them Cinco de Mayo parties.Unless GWB is an America-hater who is unusually good at feigning patriotism, he is an extraordinary strategic and moral incompetent. If he is a hidden America-hater - which I don’t really believe - he is simply evil, like his predecessor.

He more resembles Barak, a deluded Israeli patriot, than does Clinton. Clinton was - is - vile and destructive, but I believe he knew what he was doing (most of the time). I do not have that feeling about Bush, nor did I have it about Barak. Come to think of it, though, I never particularly thought GHW Bush really knew what he was doing either… HRS