Word rapidly reached foreign ears that the Bush administration intends to remain in the quicksand of Iraq. As the Washington Post and New York Times were reporting the statements made by General David Petraeus, President Bush, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, so was the famed news source of the Arab world: Al-Jazeera.

Many Americans associate Al-Jazeera with fuzzy pictures of hiding militia leaders and biased reporting that edges toward propaganda. It may come as a surprise, then, that it is difficult to distinguish differences between the Al-Jazeera article and that with the same subject in the New York Times. The only difference is the punch at the end of the Al-Jazeera article, all too conveniently mentioning Bush’s diving approval rating of 28%.

Although the articles spins are strikingly similar, biases appear among reader responses. A few brave – and possibly insane – souls attempted to stick up for the Bush administration, and were promptly shot down. Criticism was woven into nearly all the threads. “May god help us to bring stability in a region that was completely damaged by the united states of America,” decried Noha M. from Cairo. “We know that the 'superpower' is 'superpowerless', embarrassed and embarrassing,” said Niloufar from Tehran, who was promptly applauded by journey from Cairo. Omar fox from the UAE pointedly noted, “The whole 'Muslim-on-Muslim' rhetoric is a weak distraction away from the failures of the US administration to achieve any of its set out objectives in Iraq.”

Condemnation rings in the ears of the Bush administration, and yet they continue in their path. Not only has this administration risen above the law, they have risen above the fundamental commandment of democratic politics: thou shalt please those whom hath given you thine office. Though the accusations have targeted the actions of the Bush administration, they are misdirected. The true crime of George and his cronies is not what they have done, it is what they have purposefully neglected: an ear for public opinion.