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Bush Says Secretary Powell Will Link Iraq And Al Qaeda |
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President Bush delivering his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night.
Photo: CBS News
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Declaring that the U.S. is committed to "answer every danger and every enemy," President Bush delivered his State of the Union address to the nation on Tuesday evening.
In a speech lasting nearly an hour, the president touched on a variety of domestic and foreign-policy topics including Medicare, prescription drug costs, tax cuts, the environment, the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the global threat of terrorism.
Striking a deliberate, almost prosecutorial tone, the president elaborated on previous statements condemning Iraq and outlined why he views that nation as a menace to the rest of the world. He said that Iraq had failed to account for quantities of chemical and biological weapons and he called on the nation to cooperate more fully with U.N. weapons inspectors.
"It is up to Iraq to show exactly where it is hiding its banned weapons, lay those weapons out for the world to see and destroy them as directed," said the president. "Nothing like this has happened."
The president also said that Secretary of State Colin Powell will appear before the United Nations Security Council on February 5 to present U.S. intelligence that demonstrates not only Iraq's efforts to hide weapons of mass destruction, but its connections to al Qaeda.
Bush said that while the U.S. wishes to work in concert with its allies, it will fight alone, or with limited allied support, if necessary.
"We will consult, but let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people, and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him," the president said.
One of the more striking things about the president's speech was the tenor of significant portions of it, which harkened back to his 2000 run for the White House. During that campaign, Bush frequently described himself as a "compassionate conservative."
The first foreign policy topic the president touched upon, for instance, was not the potential conflict with Iraq, the nuclear threat posed by North Korea, or the ongoing strife between the Israelis and Palestinians, but the AIDS epidemic currently plaguing Africa. In just the third paragraph of his speech, the president remarked, "We have the opportunity to save millions of lives abroad from a terrible disease."
Later, Bush proposed upping the U.S. commitment to fighting AIDS by $10 billion to "turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean." The president said the new fund would prevent 7 million new AIDS infections and provide care to millions of others currently suffering from the disease. (Currently, the U.S. spends roughly $130 million annually on the AIDS crisis in Africa, according to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), who appeared on ABC News shortly after the president's address.)
But the president also delivered some of his most pointed remarks since the September 11, 2001 attacks with regard to the war on terrorism. "All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries," he said.
"And many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way: They are no longer a problem for the United States and our friends and allies," he said to loud cheers from members of Congress.
The president also demonstrated a willingness to frame the U.S. position within a spiritual context. "The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity," he stated.
"We Americans have faith in ourselves but not in ourselves alone. We do not claim to know all the ways of Providence, yet we can trust in them, placing our confidence in the loving God behind all of life, and all of history," he said.
Governor Gary Locke of Washington state delivered the Democratic Party's response to Bush's speech shortly after the president had concluded his remarks.
With regard to U.S. policy toward Iraq, Locke said Democrats support the president but believe he should secure the support of allies abroad before launching any attack.
"We support the president in the course he has taken so far: working with Congress, working with the United Nations, insisting on strong and unfettered inspections," Locke said. "We need allies today in 2003, just as we needed them in Desert Storm and just as we needed them on D-Day in 1944."
Locke also took issue with the president's domestic agenda, in particular his proposed $674 billion tax cut, which he dubbed "upside-down economics." He said the president's cut in the tax on dividends would explode the deficit and provide a windfall to America's wealthiest citizens.
"Under the president's proposal to eliminate taxes on stock dividends, the top one percent — that's people who earn over $300,000 a year — would get more tax relief than the bottom 95 percent of tax payers combined," Locke said. "That's wrong, it's irresponsible and it won't create jobs."
 Complete text of President Bush's State of the Union address
By Ethan Zindler
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