Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

Advance press releases on the Internet report that President Bush gives the commencement address at the U. S. Air Force Academy this afternoon. In his speech, he plans to compare the War on Terrorism in the Middle East to World War II in Europe. I won’t spend time repeating what will be tonight’s evening news, but I do have some thoughts on the matter.

Fatalities are always tragic, whether one life or many are lost. But the comparison Bush wishes to make in this regard is lopsided. The United States lost almost half a million men and women during World War II. Almost a thousand members of our Armed Forces have died since Bush declared war on Iraq last year.

The real axis of evil — Germany, Italy, and Japan — were sovereign countries we knew and recognized. And we fought the Germans, Italians, and Japanese. Iraq is a country we know, but Bush says we are not fighting the Iraqis; rather we are fighting to ‘free’ them. It sounds as if we are on the same side, but the past year suggests our ideas about freedom, religion, and government do not necessarily agree with theirs.If terror were a country, its citizens could be called terrorists. And President Bush could wage war on the appropriate target of his anger. He could draw better comparisons too. Until then, however, it isn’t a good idea to substitute one war with another or to interchange the concepts of country and ideology.