Who is George Soros and why is he saying such awful things? Most Americans do not know this billionaire investor, but he, using his vast wealth, has become a force in left wing political circles. In some ways, he is the litmus test for Democratic politics.

Most of the time, Mr. Soros concerns himself with foreign affairs pointing out what he considers the failures of the Bush administration. In interviews with the press, Soros claims that President Bush’s war on terror “is really exploitation.” Moreover, he urges European leaders to adopt a stance different from the United States.

Writing in the London based Independent Soros contends the Bush foreign mission shamelessly exploits fears generated from 9/11. As he sees it, “fear is a bad counselor; we must resist it wherever it comes from.” He maintains that with the Bush policy terror will never end. “The terrorists are invisible; therefore they can never disappear. It is our civil liberties that may disappear instead.”

That position is the sine qua non of leftist thought. Terrorism is merely a cover for a subtle coup d etat in which civil liberties are imperiled. According to Soros, we exaggerate the threat al Queda represents and underestimate the extent to which civil liberties are at risk. For him terrorism is an abstraction representing different forces and groups that require correspondingly different means of engagement.

When it comes to the issue of Iraq, Soros takes a pass. He expresses concerns about minority groups in that county, but he doesn’t know how we should help them. That doesn’t translate into a diatribe against the use of military force, but when force is mentioned it is accompanied with the caveat “where appropriate.” Of course, where it is appropriate is rarely, if ever, explained.

Soros believes there are “nefarious psychological reasons” that explain the behavior of Bush-Cheney, but these are also never specified, albeit he has called erstwhile Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton a member of a group of “rabid American supremists.” Does that mean they are patriots?

Soros seems to take great pleasure in attacking members of the Bush administration in a manner reminiscent of Michael Moore. For example, on one occasion he said, “you don’t have a Karl Marx, you have only a Karl Rove who has been successful in creating a coalition of fundamentalists.” Continued...