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Bush focuses on economy, war
29/01/2008 07:20 - (SA)
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| US President George W Bush delivers the State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Tim Sloan, AP) |
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Washington - US President George W Bush, standing before Congress one last time on Monday, urged Americans to stand confident against gnawing recession fears and be patient with the grinding war in Iraq.
Bush delivered his final State of the Union address before a hostile, Democratic-led Congress eager for the end of his term next January.
With his approval rating near its all-time low, the president lacked the political muscle to push bold ideas, and he did not try. The one possible exception was the economy. He urged lawmakers to approve urgently a $150bn plan to stave off a recession through tax rebates - negotiated with Democratic and Republican lawmakers - for families and incentives for businesses to invest in new plants and equipment.
"As we meet tonight, our economy is undergoing a period of uncertainty," Bush said. "And at kitchen tables across our country there is concern about our economic future."
Results in Iraq
Since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the war has been a main topic of Bush's annual addresses to Congress. He said the build-up of 30 000 US troops and an increase in Iraqi forces "have achieved results few of us could have imagined just one year ago".
"Some may deny the surge is working," Bush said, "but among the terrorists there is no doubt. Al-Qaeda is on the run in Iraq, and this enemy will be defeated."
Bush announced no troop withdrawals except for a start in the return of the 30 000 sent last year for his "surge" troop build-up. The White House said more withdrawals would depend on the advice of General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, US ambassador to Baghdad.
Congress, despite repeated attempts, has been unable to force troop withdrawals or deadlines for pullbacks, and Iraq has receded as an issue in Washington.
He also prodded Congress to extend a law that allows surveillance of suspected terrorists, renew his education law and approve free-trade pacts with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
Fewer allies and more enemies
In the Democratic response to the president's address, however, Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas urged Bush to work with Congress and help the United States regain its global standing damaged by the war. "The last five years have cost us dearly - in lives lost; in thousands of wounded warriors whose futures may never be the same; in challenges not met here at home because our resources were committed elsewhere," she said. "America's foreign policy has left us with fewer allies and more enemies."
The war in Iraq has claimed the lives of 3 940 members of the US military and many times more Iraqis.
The annual State of the Union address normally ranks among the biggest events in the US political calendar, delivered with pomp and ceremony to lawmakers from both chambers and to other powerful Washington officials attending the joint session. This year's speech has been overshadowed by the intense Democratic and Republican campaigns to succeed Bush, who is barred by the constitution from seeking a third term.
Government is not the answer
Aides had said Bush would not use Monday night's address as a summation of his time in office, but he did. He turned to the phrase "over the past seven years" when talking about some of the most-prized efforts of his administration: tax relief, participation in religious charities, his global freedom agenda and increased funding for veterans.
In past years, Bush has used the speech to announce major domestic programmes or make foreign policy statements. In his 2002 speech, he declared Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Iran and North Korea to comprise an "axis of evil". In 2003, he set out the case for war against Iraq.
The rhetorical device that held the speech together was trust in people - taxpayers, homeowners, medical researchers, doctors and patients, students, workers, energy entrepreneurs and others - to drive their own success and that of the country. The unspoken message: government is not the answer.
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