George Bush's childlike approach to the question of "Good and Evil" in the Middle East is creating a very complex problem.

It is sometimes convenient, for purposes of rhetorical effect, for national leaders to talk of a globe neatly divided into good and bad. It is quite another, however, to base the policies of the world's most powerful nation upon that fiction. The administration's penchant for painting its perceived adversaries with the same sweeping brush has led to a series of unintended consequences.

For years, the president has acted as if Al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein's followers and Iran's mullahs were parts of the same problem. Yet, in the 1980s, Hussein's Iraq and Iran fought a brutal war. In the 1990s, Al Qaeda's allies murdered a group of Iranian diplomats. For years, Osama bin Laden ridiculed Hussein, who persecuted Sunni and Shiite religious leaders alike. When Al Qaeda struck the U.S. on 9/11, Iran condemned the attacks and later participated constructively in talks on Afghanistan. The top leaders in the new Iraq — chosen in elections that George W. Bush called "a magic moment in the history of liberty" — are friends of Iran. When the U.S. invaded Iraq, Bush may have thought he was striking a blow for good over evil, but the forces unleashed were considerably more complex.

I can remember being a young child and being drawn to the simplistic depiction of good and evil in my superhero comic books. The villian always had some complex scientific method of destroying the planet and the hero just came in swinging. He destroyed the intellectual pursuits of the villain with pure brute force. So simple, so satisfying, so immature!

I have long ago left behind those ridiculous expectations of identifying the good from the bad. I have learned that people are never that easy to categorize. There is some good and bad in almost everyone.

Now I would never allow a child who did not understand the complexities of the human psyche to determine our national policies. They would not be able to accept that people who were not like themselves would be trustworthy. Different is bad to children.

George Bush is a child. He deals with the world like a child. He lies, and sticks to that lie just like a child. He ignores reality like a child. He imagines monsters in his closet like a child. He plays with our military like it was a set of toys. He just does not respond to the problems of this world as an adult would.

I lay a lot of the blame for this at the feet of the supposed grown-ups in the administration. I remember feeling much calmer about the presidency of George Bush when he chose Dick Cheney and Colin Powell to be part of his cabinet. I knew that both of these men were experienced political veterans and surely they would help keep the boy-king grounded. That did not happen. It appeared that Colin Powell tried to perform that function but he was shouted down by the opportunists who saw this simpleton as a conduit for spreading their influence thoughout the world.

George Bush is ultimately going to be blamed for this horrible foregn policy but I think there is plenty of blame to go around. Plenty of blame.