President Bush gave the fifth State of the Union speech of his presidency on Tuesday night, addressing a broad range of issues such as national security, education, AIDS, and the global War on Terror in a speech to a clearly divided, but much more animated than in recent years, joint session of congress.
After acknowledging yesterday's passing of Coretta Scott King, Bush jumped in with both feet, chastising the opposition party for their obstructionism and cheap shots (though not in so many words), and saying "tough debates can be conducted in a civil tone, and our differences cannot be allowed to harden into anger...together we will make [America] stronger."
Bush warned against retreat, saying that such action would not only show "a lack of faith in our ideals and courage," but could ultimately "bring the battlefield to our shores." He defended America's leadership in the world, and warned against "the false comfort of isolationism," saying "we are the Nation that saved liberty in Europe, and liberated death camps, and helped raise up democracies, and faced down an evil empire. Once again, we accept the call of history to deliver the oppressed, and move this world toward peace."
He continued by praising the growing number of democracies in the world, in which "over half the people of our world live," and by saying that "we do not forget the other half — in places like Syria, Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran — because the demands of justice, and the peace of this world, require their freedom as well." Bush contrasted the freedom-loving people of the world with Osama bin Laden and his followers, who "rage and fight against it. Terrorists like bin Laden are serious about mass murder — and all of us must take their declared intentions seriously. ...Lacking the military strength to challenge us directly, the terrorists have chosen the weapon of fear. When they murder children at a school in Beslan, or blow up commuters in London, or behead a bound captive, the terrorists hope these horrors will break our will, allowing the violent to inherit the Earth. But they have miscalculated: We love our freedom, and we will fight to keep it."
The President addressed the situation in Iraq, giving a three-pronged synopsis of the ongoing operations and defending the "plan for victory" there. "We are on the offensive in Iraq," he said. "First, we are helping Iraqis build an inclusive government... Second, we are continuing reconstruction efforts, and helping the Iraqi government to fight corruption and build a modern economy, so all Iraqis can experience the benefits of freedom. Third, we are striking terrorist targets while we train Iraqi forces... Iraqis are showing their courage every day, and we are proud to be their allies in the cause of freedom." He dealt a blow to the vicious critics of his administration and the Iraq situation by noting the "difference between responsible criticism that aims for success, and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure. Hindsight alone is not wisdom. And second-guessing is not a strategy." Bush summed up the Iraq situation and the calls for troop withdrawal with the succinct but telling, "The road of victory is the road that will take our troops home."
President Bush next upped the ante by throwing down the gauntlet to another middle-eastern threat, calling Iran a "nation now held hostage by a small clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people." He called for an end to the state sponsoring of Palestinian terrorists, and said, "the Iranian government is defying the world with its nuclear ambitions — and the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons. America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats." He next spoke directly to the citizens of Iran, saying, "America respects you, and we respect your country. We respect your right to choose your own future and win your own freedom. And our Nation hopes one day to be the closest of friends with a free and democratic Iran."
The key to fighting terrorism and stifling the power of rogue regimes, said the President, is "encouraging economic progress, fighting disease, and spreading hope in hopeless lands." He called the United States a "partner for a better life" to "developing nations that are moving forward with economic and political reform," and said that blunting these efforts would "increase the suffering and chaos of our world, undercut our long-term security, and dull the conscience of our country."
President Bush urged Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act, and defended his terrorist surveillance program to the international communications of suspected al-Qaida operatives and affiliates to and from America. Pointing to the US's failure to connect the dots on September 11th before the fact, Bush said that "previous presidents [had] used the same constitutional authority...and Federal courts have approved the use of that authority." (This was a reference to the indiscriminant surveillance of Americans' electronic communications carried out by the Clinton administration's Echelon program.) The President continued, "appropriate Members of Congress have been kept informed. This terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America. If there are people inside our country who are talking with al-Qaida, we want to know about it — because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again."
To the critics who have decried the his administration's refusal to yield to other nations in the conduct of the Global War on Terror, President Bush said, "from the disruption of terror networks, to victory in Iraq, to the spread of freedom and hope in troubled regions — we need the support of friends and allies." He stressed that the best means of gaining and maintaining that support was to "always be clear in our principles and willing to act," and emphasized that "the only alternative to American leadership is a dramatically more dangerous and anxious world." America, he said, "[chooses] to lead because it is a privilege to serve the values that gave us birth. American leaders - from Roosevelt to Truman to Kennedy to Reagan - rejected isolation and retreat, because they knew that America is always more secure when freedom is on the march. Our own generation is in a long war against a determined enemy - a war that will be fought by Presidents of both parties, who will need steady bipartisan support from the Congress. And tonight I ask for yours. Together, let us protect our country, support the men and women who defend us, and lead this world toward freedom."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183390,00.html
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