- On Tuesday night, the wretched specter of September 11th
returned to Logan airport, departure point for the planes that took down
the Twin Towers. Hours before George W. Bush delivered his State of the
Union speech, a commercial aircraft had to be emptied, and its passengers
re-screened, after a box cutter was discovered in a seat pocket.
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- During his speech, Bush attempted to tout the actions
he has taken to secure the nation against terrorism. He spoke of the Homeland
Security Department, increased border patrols, and 50,000 new airport security
screeners in place across the country. He failed, of course, to mention
the devious Total Information Awareness database that came along with Homeland
Security, and he failed to mention how bitterly he fought to keep those
50,000 screeners out of the airports, because they would be Federalized
workers and thus able to unionize.
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- So much went unsaid during his speech. That box cutter
at Logan, however, spoke volumes.
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- The first twenty-five minutes of the Bush speech was
dedicated to domestic and economic issues. These are proving to be the
Achilles heel of this administration, just as they were the last time a
Bush occupied the Oval Office. Bush began by touting the education reform
bill passed several months ago with the help of Senator Ted Kennedy, but
failed to mention the degree to which Kennedy has since distanced himself
from that bill and the added flaws he never agreed to. He spoke of holding
corporate criminals to account, failing to mention the incredible number
of Enron executives - including his beloved Kenny-Boy - who still walk
free and clear across the nation they defiled with their fraud and deceit.
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- Bush had words of great praise for the trillion-dollar
tax cut he foisted during his first year in office, and rattled off a number
of demands for Congress to make those cuts permanent. Don't wait one year
or three years or five years, he said, but cement those cuts today. He
failed to mention the soaring deficits these tax cuts have caused, and
likewise failed to mention that the cuts did not one single solitary thing
to help this flagging economy.
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- Bush went on to roll out his new tax cut, aimed at stock
dividends, which will once again benefit the wealthiest Americans. He failed
to mention how the budget will handle this added stress; likewise, he failed
to mention the fact that a number of prominent Republicans, along with
virtually every Democrat and a mob of economists, saw this new tax cut
concept as essentially flawed and dead on arrival. Every man and woman
who wants a job must have one, said Bush. He failed to mention the millions
of jobs that have been lost by Americans since he took office.
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- After an inordinate amount of praise for his tax cuts,
and no mention of how the budget can survive them, Bush went on to rhetorically
spend billions and billions of dollars he does not have on hand. He proposed
an end to the 'marriage penalty', and went on to propose $1.2 billion in
spending to develop hydrogen-powered automobiles. He failed to explain
how he can afford any of this, and likewise failed to parse the hypocrisy
of touting hydrogen cars while his new tax plan provides tens of thousands
of dollars worth of write-offs for owners of gas-guzzling SUVs.
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- Another $450 million will go to a mentor program for
children whose parents are in prison. $600 million will go to another drug
treatment program. A whopping $15 billion will go to the noble cause of
assisting the catastrophic AIDS crisis in Africa, but not a word was spared
to explain where this money will be found. The mother of all financial
boondoggles, the Ballistic Missile Shield, got it's due to no one's great
surprise.
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- At one point during the reading of this fiduciary laundry
list, Bush demanded fiscal responsibility from the government. A roving
camera caught House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi bursting into laughter
when that line came across.
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- Using a raft of semantics, Bush proposed that Medicare
be moved into the HMO system, with newly minted Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist smiling from the crowd. He failed to mention how much HMOs loathe
caring for senior citizens. He proposed the development of cleaner energy
technology while increasing energy reliance at home, but failed to explain
that this was code for the despoiling of the Alaskan National Wildlife
Refuge.
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- The faith-based initiative earned a return appearance
in the Bush speech, with much talk of compassion and service. He failed
to describe the degree to which such a program will annihilate the sacred
and absolutely necessary separation between church and state. The Federal
government will be offering services to those Americans who "deserve"
attention, and the rest will be left to the whims of religious institutions.
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- To be sure, this was a generalized list, filled with
hyperbole and great praise for the failed economic plans of the last two
years. Upon arriving at the subject of foreign policy and war, however,
Mr. Bush shifted gears. In every way, his delivery became more dynamic,
his voice more like a man standing before a congregation of the faithful.
Nearly every line was met with crashing applause from his Republican allies
arrayed before him.
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- Bush spoke of liberating Afghanistan, but failed to
mention that this was done with the overwhelming approval and support of
the international community. He spoke again of chasing terrorists across
the globe. "The war goes on," said Bush, "and we are winning."
He listed a number of al Qaeda agents who had been detained without providing
much in the way of specifics, and stated that some 3,000 suspected terrorists
were under arrest. Many more have been dealt with; "Put it this way,"
said Bush. "They are no longer a problem." He failed to describe
the premises upon which those 3,000 were detained, and likewise failed
to mention that in the process of rendering those others 'non-problematic,'
his war in Afghanistan sent more civilians to death than were lost on September
11th.
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- The last twenty minutes of Bush's speech were dedicated
almost exclusively to the looming conflict in Iraq. He leveled a damning
finger at Saddam Hussein, accusing him of hiding anthrax, VX, botulinin
toxin and other terrible weapons. He failed to provide an iota of evidence
to back up these assertions, and on a number of occasions trotted out 'evidence'
that had been debunked by the UN inspectors and the CIA. Bush raised the
dire threat of a nuclear-capable Iraq, but failed to note that the nuclear
inspectors in Iraq have given that nation a totally clean bill of health.
He likewise failed to mention that his administration and the Pentagon
have approved the use of nuclear weapons in Iraq as mainstream tactical
battlefield tools.
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- Bush on several occasions linked Hussein directly to
al Qaeda, painting at one point a picture of nineteen hijackers directed
by Hussein commandeering aircraft and loading them with chemical or biological
weapons. He offered no proof of this. He failed to mention that Hussein
is a secular dictator who has spent the last thirty years crushing Islamic
fundamentalism in Iraq, failed to mention the death threats levied against
him by al Qaeda, and failed to mention the absolute fact that Hussein would
never be so stupid as to give weapons or aid to blood enemies. Were he
to do so, he would find those weapons immediately turned against him.
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- Bush failed to mention how the American economy could
handle the billions of dollars needed to support the war, the inevitable
oil shock that would come as a result of the war, the billions more needed
for his missile shield, the billions needed to push his new tax cut through,
the billions needed to make his old tax cut permanent, and the billions
needed to pay for the new programs he proposed.
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- Bush failed to explain why so many Admirals and Generals,
including Generals Zinni and Schwartzkopf, have spoken about the recklessness
of this war plan. He failed to mention the inevitable blowback of terrorism
that America would suffer should this war take place, especially if it
takes place with a 'coalition of the willing' that does not include a UN
sanction.
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- At no time, and in no way, did George W. Bush mention
the name Osama bin Laden.
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- State of the Union speeches are political events, filled
with pomp and circumstance and tradition. When a President proposes new
policies and new challenges, and backs those proposals up with beneficial
actions, the politics of the speech are worth their weight in gold. As
the elder Bush discovered, after his empty speech of 1992, baseless rhetoric
with no follow-up is as the crack of doom. Bush cannot afford the domestic
policies he has proposed, and charts a deadly path to war abroad. There
was so much left unsaid during this speech. Those empty spaces may prove,
in the end, to be his downfall.
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- <mailto:william.pitt@truthout.org>William Rivers
Pitt is a New York Times bestselling author of two books - "War On
Iraq" (with Scott Ritter) available now from Context Books, and "The
Greatest Sedition is Silence," available in May 2003 from Pluto Press.
He teaches high school in Boston, MA.
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- Scott Lowery contributed research to this report.
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