Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at the Independent Institute on One Autocratic Belligerent Deposed, One to Go:
The humiliating footage, beamed to the world, of a bedraggled Saddam Hussein having his mouth examined by a U.S. military doctor is living proof that the embarrassing, once U.S.-supported Iraqi despot has finally been deposed. But if that fate is now to befall all dethroned, war-like leaders with autocratic tendencies, perhaps President Bush should get his own dental house in order just in case he loses the election in November 2004.
Of course, it would be unfair to compare the magnitude of Saddam’s bellicosity and human rights violations with those of President Bush. After all, Saddam Hussein went to war with two countries — Iran and Kuwait — without provocation; so far, President Bush has needlessly invaded only one nation — Iraq — without first being attacked or genuinely threatened. In addition, Saddam killed thousands of his own people (some with chemicals sold to him with the approval of the U.S. and other Western governments); President Bush only had his law enforcement agencies intimidate and interrogate thousands of innocent Arabs and Moslems based solely on their ethnicity or religion and detain and mistreat thousands of similar immigrants indefinitely without charges or access to a lawyer. Saddam used censored media to justify or hide such heinous human rights violations; President Bush merely relies on a White House spin machine and a cowed and compliant post-September 11 American press corps to positively pitch his violations of America’s founding principles — adequate due process and equal protection under the law. In war, we become a little more like our enemies.
You can read the rest of Dr. Eland's always excellent commentary here.