You can find the complete text of U.S.A. President George W. Bush's address to The State of the Union 2003. In this article I am going to be splicing portions together and to the best of my abilities within context. This article is up for debate. Flames, as usual, are welcome =) That is, if you have something useful to say.

Bush made 4 explicit goals and a fifth, implicit goal. Here are those goals as stated by Bush:

1) "Our first goal is clear: We must have an economy that grows fast enough to employ every man and woman who seeks a job."

"...The fairest way to make sure Americans have that money is not to tax it away in the first place... propsing... income tax reduction set for 2004 and 2006 be made permanent and effective this year... reducing the marriage penalty... raising the child credit to $1000... our plan will improve the bottom line for more than 23 million small businesss... end the unfair double taxation of dividens... more jobs mean more taxpaers and higher revenues to our government... I will send you a budget that increases discretionary spending by 4 per cent next year, about as much as the average family's income is expected to grow."

"... we must put doctors, and nurses, and patients back in charge of American medicine... giving seniors access to preventive medicine and new drugs... all seniors should have the choice of a health care plan that provides prescription drugs... my budget will commit an additional $400,000,000,000 over the next decade to reform and strengthen Medicare... no one has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit. I urge Congress to pass medical liability reform."

"... I have sent you Clear SKies legislation that madates a 70 per cent cut in air pollution from power plants oevr the next 15 years. I have sent you a Healthy Forests Initiative, to help prevent the catastrophic fires that devastate communities, kill wildlife and burn away millions of acres of treasured forest. I urge you to pass these measures... I am proposing a $1,200,000,000 research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hyrogen-powered automobiles. A simple chemical reaction between hyrodgen and oxygen generates energy, which can be used to power a car producing only water, not exhaust fumes."

"... I propose a $450,000,000 initiative to bring mentors to more than a million disadvantaged junior high students and children of prisioners... Another cause of hopelessness is an addiction to drugs... I propose a new $600,000,000 program to help an additional 300,000 Americans receive treatment over the next three years.... I ask you to set a high standard for humanity and pass a law against all human cloning... I ask Congress to commit $15,000,000,000 over the next 5 years, including nearly $10,000,000,000 in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean."

"... I ask you tonight to add to our future security with a major research and production effort to guard people against bioterrorism, called Project Bioshield. The budget I send you will propose almost $6,000,000,000 to quickly make available effective vaccines against agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, Ebola and plague. We must assume that our enemies would use these diseases as weapons and we must act before the dangers are upon us... Tonight I am instructing the leaders of the FBI, the CIA, the HOmeland Security and the Department of Defence to devop a Terrorist Threat integration Center to merge and analyse all threat information in a single location... Today, the gravest danger in the war on terror is... regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. These regimes could use such weapons for blackmail, terror and massmurder. They could also give or sell those weapons to terrorist allies who would use them without the least hesitation. This threat is new... Throughout the 20th century, small groups of men seized control of great nations, built armies and arsenals and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the world. in each case, their ambitions of cruelty and murder had no limit. In each case, the ambitions of Hitlerism, militarism... were defeated by the will of free peoples, by the strength of great alliances... Once again we are called to defend the safety of our people and the hopes of all mankind. And we accept this responsibility. America is making a broad and determined effort to confront these dangers. We have called on the United Nations to fulfill its charter and stand by its demand that Iraq disarm... In all these efforts, however, America's purpose is more than to follow a process. it is to achieve a result: the end of terrible threats to the civilized world... Different threats require different strategies... Twelve years ago Saddam Hussein faced the prospect of being the last casualty in a war he had started and lost. To spare himself, he agreed to disarm all weapons of mass destruction. For the next 12 years he systematically violated that agreement. he pursued chemical, biological and nuclear weapons even while inspectors were in his country... Almost three months ago, the United Nations Security Council gave Saddam Hussein his final chance to disarm. he has shown instead his utter contempt for the United Nations and for the opinion of the world... The United Nations concluded in 1999 the Saddam Hussein had biological weapons suffcient to produce over 25,000 litres of anthrax... materials suffcient to produce more than 38,000 lires of botulinum toxin... our intelligence officials estimate the Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500,000 kilograms of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent... intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them, despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence... from three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq in the late 1990s had several mobile biological weapons labs... designed to produce germ warfare agents and can be moved from place to place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He has given no evidence that he has... The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production... Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide. The dictator of Iraq is not disarming... Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as the scientists inspectors are supposed to interview. Real scientists have been coached by Iraqi officials on what to say. And intelligence sources indicate that Saddam Hussein has ordered that scientists who co-operate with UN inspectors in disarming Iraq will be killed, along with their families... Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is to be permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a stategy and it is not an option... If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning... The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm... If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people and for the peace of the world, we will lead a colaition to disarm him... Sending Americans into battle is the most profound decision a president can make... This nation fights reluctantly because we know the cost... We seek peace. We strive for peace. And sometimes peace must be defended. A future lived at the mercy of terrible threats is no peace at all."

And there you have it, Bush's stance, America's stance. I don't have any objections to points 1,2,3,4 or 5. But I do question the approach. First off, the amount of money to be spent on programs to improve the state of America, divided by the number of years this money will be rolled out, still tallies at $50 BILLION needed for the year 2003 alone. Where in the heck is this going to come from? He just said he was going through with long-term, slowly progressive tax cuts immediately! Holy Shit, Conor and I thought. Then it hit us: the black gold of Iraq. You can construe the intent from his speech that Saddam must not have power over such a worldy-important resource (perhaps America should?). That little shot aside, Bush's programs can't be shot down. How he can get them in place is another question. I'm going to sweep aside points 1-4 because he did this too. Out of the 8-page print of the speech I made, 4 pages dealt with the four points, at that is at best because there was a huge section about Africa that didn't need to be there because it had not point other than to make you misty in the eyes. The rest was spent on justifying war on Iraq.

The one major fear that I have in the back of my mind is a repeat of history. He pointed that out too: Hitlerism. For years, powerful nations that had placed restrictions on Germany rearming, but looked the other way or were all talk and no action while Germany prepared for war. The signs were obvious but no one wanted to get their hands dirty. Kudos for America to propose it is ready to get its hands dirty. What will more time for the UN gain the world? Concrete proof that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is a threat? Then the UN will roll in and do their thing. But if Iraq is purchasing the final components required to make a nuclear bomb, and is suspected of being only months away, why wait? What if by the time the UN has it's proof and is in the proccess of putting the troops in, Saddam attacks with the nuke and now that our troops are within range rather than at home, they die, and a new world war breaks out. A devastating one too. Everyone here pretty much knows my stance on when to take actions, and that is when there is no time for anything else and action must be taken to prevent harm. How would you feel if Canada didn't agree to a coalition, and Saddam despite our best predictions, got a bomb together to welcome the US troops? We'd be greatful that our own boys weren't hurt but we had better be ashamed that we weren't there. I would have great reservations joining the U.S. military because of the history for war when I don't think war was yet an acceptable option. But like the US pilot who is being charged with involuntary manslaughter of Canadian soldiers, hindsight is 20/20. Only time will tell if the US did the best thing in iniating a coalition to dethrone Saddam. Although this analysis is brief, I hope I've backed up my points. All in all, I guess I can't complain with the speech, which surprises me. What do you think of this movement against Iraq, and terroism? Where do you think the money for a restructuring of America will come from? What are you objections and what do you support? And why?