Bushwhacked again?

I was trying hard not to tune in to Bush's State of the Union address, because it seemed, from all indications, he would be calling for "more of the same," and "Stay the course." I gave in to temptation, though and tuned in for the speech. Here are some of my impressions:

The Good (sort of):

-I was pleased that Bush is finally acknowledging that "climate change" is occurring, and that carbon emissions are at least partly to blame. I was also pleased to hear about his call to reduce gasoline consumption and increase alternative fuel and energy sources.

This is not enough though- he is still in favor of allowing big business to continue to pollute the environment, largely with impugnity since he rejects any limits on emissions or strengthened clean air and water standards.

Combatting AIDS and malaria in Africa- he is proposing another $ billion or so of relief funds to help fight disease. That is encouraging and I hope he and congress follow through on it.

No Child Left Behind- this is a good program with great promise, IF and only IF it is adequately funded at the federal, state and local levels- with a Democratic majority in congress, I feel this may be possible. I am concerned that public education funding not be diverted or undermined, though.

The Bad:

His rhetoric about "the war on terror" sounded much like fear-mongering and alarmist speech, designed to get support of Americans by scaring people out of their wits by raising up some terrorist bogey men. Terrorism is a real threat- no dispute there, the way Bush has exploited this issue to raise public fear, however is disgraceful.

"To win the war on terror we must take the fight to the enemy..." hmm... so how does the War in Iraq have anything remotely to do with 'taking the fight to the enemy??'

If he were really serious about this, he would have committed all our forces to root out bin laden and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan when he still had the chance in the weeks and months after 9/11...


The Ugly:

What about the people of New Orleans? Apparently the millions of people affected or displaced by Katrina have been forgotten by our commander in chief- not even a mention in the entire speech, unless I missed it somewhere...

Mr. Bush also went back to that tired theme of "they hate us for our freedom"

He is totally clueless about Iraq- Bush tries to present himself as some sort of deliverer who swooped into a chaotic Iraq to bring them freedom. He took out Sadam after falsely trumping up the bogus WMD claims, then pulling the plug on the weapons inspection process before they even had a chance to find anything.

The main thing Bush has brought to Iraq is more chaos, vicious civil war- that was not there before we invaded, and lots of casualties- 3300 American troops and counting, tens of thousands of brave American men and women seriously injured and some dismembered by the vicious improvised explosive devices (IEDs)... PLUS, by some reliable estimates (Lancet study, and U.N. estimates), hundreds of thousands of Iraqi casualties.

And what ever happened to the "rebuilding plan" and "democracy" in Iraq?? Non-existent. Instead, millions of people in Iraq are still without electricity and drinking water. Maliki is basically a puppet ruler with little or no real power or authority. The Iraqi military is another pathetic rag-tag bunch that we have cultivated a codependent relationship with, rather than empowering them to restore order, as this disturbing story from the New York Times illustrates.

How is sending tens of thousands of more American troops into such a zone help lead to any sort of tenable solution to the crisis in Iraq that Mr. Bush is, at least partly, responsible for creating?? I believe it will only further exacerbate the situation, encourage more co-dependence in the Iraqis and, sadly lead to more casualties and shattered lives.

On the whole, I am very troubled by this speech. And now, the proposed "solution" to "win in Iraq" is this "surge"?? By sending tens of thousands of more American troops into harm's way without any substantive changes in tactics, he thinks things are going to change for the better??

Let us all pray for discernment and guidance for our leaders, and also courage and boldness for those in a position to hold our leaders accountable. Ultimately, that is EACH ONE OF US... Call or write your congressional representative and even President Bush, and let them know what you most want them to work on to help make our nation and world a better place.

Here's hoping and praying for peace,

John