Another car bomb was detonated in Iraq Tuesday, this time outside a Baghdad police station, killing an Iraqi and wounding 18 others. This is just one of four such bombings to occur in the past month. Nearly as many Iraqi citizens have died in the last month as have American soldiers since the so-called end to “major conflict” on May 1.

These attacks perpetuate a fact many people have known for a long time. American soldiers (turned policemen) can’t protect themselves, let alone defend and rebuild the country.

And it doesn’t seem our president is all too worried about the endless trickle of Americans coming home in body bags. He lands planes on aircraft carriers to celebrate a mighty victory that hasn’t happened yet. He stands in front of cameras and, in typical John Wayne cowboy fashion, invites terrorists to “bring ’em on.”

One hundred forty-six Americans have died, and George W. Bush tries to compare this situation to our occupation and rebuilding of Japan after World War II, emphasizing that it will “take a long time.”

One major difference, Dubya: The Japanese accepted U.S. troops into their country, and we really did rebuild Japan. We are unwelcome in Iraq, and it’s unlikely we will do anything to fix the decimated country.

At least not as long as we are taking plays out of the Afghanistan play book. That being the model where we bury a country in bombs, install a few token figures and move on, letting the country fall apart all over again.

If you think these international debacles are bad, look at the situation on the home front. Americans have lost three million jobs, and the Congressional Budget Office is projecting budget deficits of nearly half a trillion dollars next year.

This in the midst of the Administration’s idea to increase the tax cuts that put us into this mess in the first place. But this time around, instead of coming right out and saying that these were tax cuts for the wealthy, Dubya tries to dance around the issue by saying that they are “mostly middle class” tax cuts.

I was hoping someone could tell me how the elimination of stock dividend taxes, a large chunk of Bush’s plan, would help Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class, let alone students such as ourselves. This plan will only help people who actually get a sizable amount of money from dividend checks; namely the rich or those who plain don’t need tax cuts.

Let’s face it people. Dubya has failed us overseas, and he’s failed us right here at home. He has squandered the genuine goodwill given to our country after the Sept. 11 attacks, and has made the United States a target for hatred and condemnation by the entire world. He is trying to revise Ronald Reagan’s trickle-down economics, which will simply put the middle and lower classes in harder financial times.

While it seems the United Nations will be playing a bigger part in Iraq, Bush’s handling of this and domestic issues can only be described as deplorable. To re-elect him in 2004 would be a mistake for the country, and a headache for the world community.

Joe Roma is a senior majoring in political science.