Letter: Bush fails test as leader of free world

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

I watched President Bush's press conference Friday, and here are a few observations: He thinks that the wording in Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions is vague, specifically "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment."

Skillful interrogation aside, is putting a leash on a prisoner and making him bark like a dog an outrage upon human dignity? Waterboarding?

The test is quite simple. If any of the techniques you want to employ were done to a loved one, or one of our soldiers, would you consider any of those secret techniques an outrage upon personal dignity, etc.?

Next, the president said he could not go after Osama bin Laden in Pakistan because it's a sovereign country, and we would have to be invited. Afghanistan and Iraq were sovereignties!

Then he said that as he walks the rope lines, many people tell him that they are praying for him. I pray every day that our leaders (the president included) will make wise and just decisions, and I don't think my prayers have been answered.

The wording of the Geneva Conventions should be left alone. The president should demonstrate to the American people and the world that he is serious about going after Osama bin Laden and fighting the real war on terror.

He should start making wise and just decisions, and I say this because I believe that many Americans and people around the world have lost faith in him as the "leader of the free world."

When that happens, America loses!

John Sloan, Las Vegas