“The evil that inspired and rejoiced in 9/11 is still at work in the world.”
Those were the words of President Bush during the 2007 State of the Union address, in reference to the threat of terrorism in the Middle East. But the same evil that inspired and rejoiced in 9/11 is still at work in the White House.
It has become repetitive to say the Bush Administration sold a war to the American people with, as The Associated Press reported this past Wednesday, 935 false statements from 9/11 until the start of the war.
It has become seemingly cumbersome and tedious to continue to speculate how we entered this calamitous situation. But this situation we find ourselves in is merely one of many others – and like the Iraq War, seemingly without end.
The president used the word “bombs” in this past year’s address more times than hurricanes Katrina and Rita, New Orleans, Louisiana, Mississippi and the Gulf Coast combined.
The truth: he didn’t mention any of them.
The president will enter the congressional chambers for his eighth and final State of the Union address this Monday. After seven long years of incredible trials and tribulations, this administration has proven that when it comes to the security of the American people, the answer lies in our military arsenal.
He mentioned this in the past year’s address: “For all of us in this room, there is no high responsibility than to protect the people of this country from danger.” He then proceeded to say 2,456 words about war, bombs and death, without one mention of his ineptitude, and subsequent apathy, for American residents on the Gulf Coast.
In the history of the Gallup Poll, no president – not even Richard Nixon – has ever had 50 percent of the population say they “strongly disapprove” of the commander-in-chief’s job performance. President Bush won enough hearts and minds this past November to achieve his dream of such a rating.
Bill Clinton’s approval rating never dipped below 53 percent, consistently registering in the 60s. But he was impeached. Ample evidence exists to charge our current leader, but this Board feels it is best to wait patiently for a year instead of trusting in a Congress who, only two months ago, had a 20 percent approval rating.
Expect President Bush to be oblivious to the Gulf Coast once again. After all, it was his own mother, Barbara Bush, who said about evacuees in the Houston Astrodome, “so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this [chuckle] – this is working very well for them.”
She’s right. We’re fine. Who has an asbestos-tainted FEMA trailer when you need one?
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