"broad totalitarian ambitions"

Editor,

George Bush & Co. conspicuously ascribe their own motives and desires to their enemies. Prime example? Accusing Saddam Hussein of harboring plans to attack the United States.

The psychological phenomenon of "projection" seems to be persistently and clearly evident in George Bush's "thinking" and his statements. Today he accused Osama bin Laden of "broad totalitarian ambitions," but a quick perusal of Hannah Arendt's classic analysis of totalitarianism ("The Origins of Totalitarianism," ISBN 0805242252) yields the image precisely of the sort of nation state into which George Bush is transforming the United States: one that is characterized by racism, imperialism, militarism, propaganda, secret police, repression, terror, and concentration camps.

White citizens like myself are not inconvenienced by the discrimination and demonization aimed every day at our Moslem neighbors. This reminds me of the normalcy with which German citizens who were not Jewish experienced the Nazi regime throughout the 1930's.