Folks,
We have read the Washington Post editorial. I did not want to clug your
inboxes with the LA Times' editorial but can assure you it is similar to the
WPost's position. However, the NYT has a different opinion and thus only
fair to post for those debating the Iraq question to read other positions. I
am sure there are many other shades of opinions being expressed by papers
across America after GW's State of the Union Message and I will be sampling
some of them while being holded up in my coop. Cheers!!!
Sidi Sanneh
-----------------------------------------------------------
The Nation, the President, the War
resident Bush sought to revive a sense of national resolve last night with a
State of the Union address that readied the country for a showdown with Iraq
and demanded another huge tax cut for wealthier Americans. No one watching
the somber Mr. Bush's delivery could doubt his determination. But the
combination created far too mixed a message. It was hard to reconcile the
president who vowed not to "pass along our problems to other Congresses, to
other presidents and other generations" with the one whose fiscal policies
have helped create gigantic deficits for taxpayers of the future.
Still, anyone who had forgotten the president's "compassionate conservative"
agenda was reminded last night of his ability to create bold and surprising
initiatives that breach the gulf between left and right. There were some of
those ideas in his agenda, particularly the most welcome proposal to spend
an additional $10 billion over the next five years fighting AIDS in Africa
and the Caribbean.
Though Mr. Bush reserved his passion for the topic of Iraq, he opened with
his domestic agenda, an attempt to reassure nervous voters that his
concentration on foreign affairs has not made him forget the problems back
home. The big idea unveiled last night was a much-anticipated plan to begin
offering politically popular prescription drug benefits to the elderly. The
catch in this proposal is that it would make drug coverage available only
through private health plans, not the fee-for-service Medicare, and he will
need to make a strong case why drug coverage should not be provided through
both systems.
The president reintroduced his $670 billion tax-cut plan, including a
proposal to eliminate dividend taxes that even many of his loyal supporters
have declared dead on arrival. The plan is tilted toward the wealthiest
Americans and has very little that would stimulate the economy. At a time
when the country may be taking on the expense of an overseas war and is
continuing the fight against domestic terrorism, this is radical right-wing
economics, dogma Mr. Bush cannot keep peddling if he hopes to unite the
country behind his foreign agenda. He also said nothing about help for the
states and localities struggling under the burden of the stagnant economy.
For all his talk about the need to cut taxes, the Bush administration seems
indifferent to the fact that local property and sales taxes are soaring all
around the country — the very levies most likely to discourage consumer
spending.
The possibility of war with Iraq overshadowed the president's other themes.
Mr. Bush has always done a good job of arguing that Saddam Hussein is
dangerous, and he did so again last night. He methodically recounted all the
good, though circumstantial, reasons the administration believes "the
dictator of Iraq is not disarming ... he is deceiving," and the
well-documented evidence that Mr. Hussein is a cruel despot who uses torture
against his own citizens. "Your enemy is not surrounding your country, your
enemy is ruling your country," he told the Iraqi people.
But the president has never been as effective in making the case for
immediate intervention or for going to war absent broad international
support. While there is a natural fear that Iraq might give arms or
biological weapons to terrorists, the administration has not been able to
connect those dots, or even to demonstrate that Iraq has a history of aiding
terrorism as clear as that of some American allies in the region. We welcome
the president's decision to bring the question of Iraq's conduct back to the
United Nations next Wednesday and to provide new intelligence that will
bolster the administration's case. More troubling was his threat to attack
Iraq even without Security Council support. Mr. Bush's language and his
intensity left little doubt that his path was set, no matter what the rest
of the international community decides.
Mr. Bush's personal popularity hinges on his obvious sincerity and
determination to show leadership in fearsome times. He has lost none of the
daring and conviction that got him where he is today — a man who enjoys
political power matched by few presidents in American history. But as he
heads into his own re-election cycle with a war plan at the top of his
agenda, the state of the union that the president leads is clearly laced
with anxiety and doubt.
_________________________________________________________________
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