In ancient Rome, and at other times in human history, rulers displayed the heads of their enemies after they had been executed. It is a particularly barbaric practice, and one much opposed by those on the right who recite endlessly that Muslims are barbarians because a few extremists cut off the heads of captured Westerners. Yet, here was the President of the United States of America, supposedly the most advanced and moral society in the world, ordering the CIA to bring him the heads of our enemies on ice so he could gloat over them like some demented feudal baron.

Forget for a moment the torture, the unlawful detainment of prisoners (most of whom we detained after we paid bounties to unscrupulous Afghans and Pakistanis without any evidence of involvement in "enemy combatant" activities). Forget the violation of our civil rights by the NSA's warrantless electronic surveillance, and the databases of potential "terrorists" filled with the names of antiwar group members compiled by law enforcement and the US military. Forget the use of incendiary weapons such as napalm and white phosphorus against Iraqi civilians. Forget the millions of Iraqi refugees displaced by Bush's war. Forget the plans that Vice President Cheney ordered the Pentagon to prepare for a surprise nuclear attack against Iran. Forget all that.

Just think on this. We had a President who was, in effect, an unaccountable warlord, ordering the decapitation of his enemies. The "leader of the free world" was a man every bit as barbaric as the worst Islamic jihadist. And McCain would continue those same policies which Bush put in place. He jokes about bombing Iran, as if the murder of innocent Iranian civilians would be not only an instance of acceptable, "collateral damage" but the height of hilarity.

The Republicans chose George Bush. And they chose John McCain to continue what Bush started. McCain, a so-called man of "honor" who has sullied his reputation forever by running an even nastier negative ad hominem attack campaign against his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, than Bush and Karl Rove ran against John Kerry in 2004. I cannot imagine a more disgraceful act on Tuesday than to cast your ballot for John McCain, the nominee of a party who, while they controlled Congress, enabled the most corrupt, the most power mad, and the most barbaric President in our history.

Bush wasn't just the "Decider" he was the "Decapitator" as well. And McCain hungers to be the "Mad Bomber" who wins the war on the noun "terror" by any means necessary, including the continuation of Bush's criminal policy of pre-emptive, aggressive wars of the President's (not the Congress') choice. McCain, a man with no principles left after he tossed all of his aside in pursuit of his ambition for higher office.

We can't afford another such person of low character to inhabit the Oval Office for the next four years. One has in his eight years in office disgraced our nation and brought it to the precipice of moral and economic ruin. Who knows what the next such person could do if we give him the opportunity?