Bush’s State of the Union Address: no surprise

President Bush’s State of the Union address was no surprise to many observers inside and outside of the United States. This year’s address was held at a time when the state of economy in America is not in good shape as the economic growth rate is declining. On the international front, the US continues to face different challenges including the continued violence in Iraq.

 

In the speech before the Congress in his last year as president, George W. Bush tried to cover important domestic and foreign issues and give a rosy picture of the state of affairs in America and seek the support of the American people for his policies, as does every American President.

 

Although many Americans expected to hear more about domestic politics particularly when the US economic situation needs immediate attention, Bush chose to allocate only about half of his speech to domestic issues. On US economy, he admitted that people are concerned about the future economic situation in America as the economy is undergoing a period of uncertainty. In order to steer the economy, he called on the Congress to pass, without any change, his tax relief package submitted to the Senate last week. One can say that Bush’s speech did not include almost any new idea on economy or the tax system.

 

On international issues, he spent much time on the situation in Iraq and tried to assure the American people that his new Iraq policy is working because, as he put it, the level of violence is down compared to last year’s terrorist attacks and civilian casualties. However, he admitted that Al Qaeda is still active in Iraq and as he did in his last year’s address, he promised to defeat Al Qaeda.

 

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he referred to his talks to the leaders of both sides that he would do everything possible to achieve a peace agreement to define a Palestinian state by the end of 2008. His lack of reference to the current Gaza seizure and killing of Palestinians perpetrated by Israel which started immediately following Bush’s visit to the area stems from the fact that Bush himself knows that Israel with its intransigence and lack of interest for peace in the area is the real culprit.

 

Bush’s words on Iran were confrontational and harsh. He touched upon both internal as well as external policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. While he claimed to have no quarrel with the Iranian people and respect Iranian traditions and history, it is a fact substantiated by evidence that US policy towards Iran during more than past fifty years, characterized by years of conspiracy and aggression, has worked against the will and desire of the Iranians. The people of Iran cannot forget the 1953 coup against Prime Minister Mossadeq’s government; they cannot forget the support extended to the Shah’s regime by different US administrations in pursuant of his repressive measures against the Iranian nation; and they cannot forget US all out support provided to Saddam’s regime during the Iran-Iraq war including the downing of the Iran Air plane in which more than 290 innocent civilians were martyred; just to name a few.

 

Bush’s position on the Iranian nuclear file included no new element. He emphasized on the need for suspension of enrichment, while Iran believes it is entitled to enrichment based on NPT. It is interesting to note that Bush chose to be silent about two issues. One is the progress being made on Iran-IAEA cooperation in clearing all outstanding issues; and two is the discussions at the level of the Security Council on the third sanctions resolution.

 

In a nutshell, one can argue that the final State of the Union address did not bring about a high score for Bush both domestically and internationally.