"Seems to me he's doing more of a George Bush, except it wouldn't be pre-emptive, thanks to Dubya. "

So in your twisted reality, if it isn't pre-emptive then how is it [and I have no clear idea of what you mean by "it" other something presumably done by Bush] a "George Bush".

By "it" are you talking about some country like Egypt taking the direction of: "If we had missiles we should have bombed Los Angeles or any other city until they stopped bombing Fallujah, Samarra, and Ramadi". Or are you talking about something else, such as his stated claim about: the proper act of taking hostages, the right to kill soldiers or civilians, or what?

Now, regarding pre-emptive action, Iraq was not a pre-emptive action. Afghanistan could be seen as pre-emptive action [depending on whether a state should or should not be responsible the terrorist activity within it's borders]. Iraq was continuing a war, a war started by Iraq invading Kuwait. The war continued because Saddam had failed to comply with the cease fire agreement. This is the legal reason.

[Of course this is assuming you recognize that there is such a thing as international law. I mention this caveat, because obviously the "Secretary-General of the Egyptian Labor Party" does not appear to recognize the generally accepted idea of international law. Now, I suppose if he may think International law is simply a product of the Jews and he hates them and sees them as oppressors. He is free to have this opinion. He seems to want to return to a different time, a time before the existance of international law in this "environment" pre-emptive action is a meaningless term- hell, the nation state is unknown concept, afterall borders were something the European powers "invented". The world was comprised of fuzzy regions, and "border areas" were in constant conflict.]

Now, if you want to talk about "pre-emptive action" as a general and loose sense [a slang usage]- non legal sense which can be summaried as "who started something". And/or the rationale behind taking any type of action- why "start something". You can state the obvious that it was Bush's decision that lead to Saddam's regime being overthrown, and all the conflict which ensued as Iraq moves towards election and towards being a more democratic State.