Peter Scott-Hansen compares George W. Bush to Abraham Lincoln “Like Lincoln, like Bush” (BDN, Aug. 15). I have never seen a more inappropriate comparison and cannot let it lie.

Readers interested in Lincoln can read Doris Kearns’ excellent biography “A Team of Rivals.” Lincoln incorporated into his Cabinet many individuals that had been political rivals. His secretary of war was a member of the opposition party. He sought out dissent and made sure he had all views presented before he made a decision. He picked capable men with character, men who had shown great personal courage, men with morals and ethics, men who held “truth” in high regard. He picked men with a history of self-sacrificing public service.

In contrast, George W. Bush has surrounded himself with semicompetent like-minded “yes” men and women, men without character or ethics, men who cannot seem to tell the truth. How else could this administration have been so consistently wrong?

Lincoln won a bloody civil war in four years time. Bush is still struggling to end a civil war in a foreign country after more than four years. Lincoln ended the heinous institution of slavery. Bush has sacrificed 3,600 lives and perhaps a trillion dollars in an ill-conceived war.

Many of us pray that another leader with Lincoln’s heart and mind will come to lead this country in this time of crisis. George Bush is not such a leader.

Michael Lane

Rockland