Time Magazine reported this week that George W. Bush keeps the pistol Saddam Hussein was captured with as a souvenir. Bush keeps the empty gun in a study next to the Oval Office. According to the article, “‘He really liked showing it off,’ says a recent visitor to the White House who has seen the gun. ‘He was really proud of it.’”

This story brings up a pressing question. What person living in the 21st Century could possibly think that this is appropriate behavior from the President of the United States? Looting the bodies of fallen foes is a military tradition that has existed for as long as war itself, but the president isn’t exactly a foot soldier. He’s not Genghis Khan. What’s next, George? Are you going to string his body up on the White House lawn as a warning to future generations?

It’s bad enough we have U.S. soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and a leader who likes dropping depleted uranium shells on civilians. Now we learn that Bush keeps a gun he plundered from Iraq in the White House like some medieval warlord. There is no doubt al Qaeda’s tactics are cruel, but that’s no reason to throw away America’s reputation too. After all this what right does Bush have to lecture anybody about uncivilized behavior?

Bush’s souvenir brings to mind another story reported by Peter Bergen. “As he sat down, he propped up next to him the Kalashnikov rifle that is never far from his side. His followers said he had taken it from a Russian he had killed.” Bergen is talking about none other than 2001 Madman of the Year Osama bin Laden. As the story goes, the Kalashnikov bin Laden is often seen carrying in his home videos is one he took from the body of a Russian soldier during the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. So once again Bush proves that he is a too much like the people we hate to really be comfortable with. Who knows? Maybe Bush and bin Laden will meet at a gun show one day and become good buddies. Then Cheney and Scalia can take them on a duck hunt.

Ironically, the study where Bush keeps his trophy is “the one where Bill Clinton held some of his infamous trysts with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.” So tell me which is worse–using the study to have sex, an act of passion, or using it as an embarrassing storehouse for looted Iraqi weaponry?