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The State of the Union Address
by Ashley Craig
President George W. Bush gave
his annual State of the Union
Address on February 1, 2006.
The speech outlined what the
president’s plans are for the United
States in the upcoming years. He
spoke of everything including .new
educational ideas, the American
economy and the War on Terror.
In his speech President Bush called
for harmony between the political
parties and support from all Ameri
can citizens.
Concerning education, President
Bush announced his new plan
called American Competitiveness
Initiative. This three step .plan
involves giving more money to
physical sciences, making a tax
break for research and develop
ment in technology permanent,
and bringing around 30,000 math
and science professionals into
classrooms to help kids who are
sfruggling in those areas. President
Bush said “...to keep America
competitive, one commit
ment is necessary above
all: We must continue to
lead the world in human
talent and creativity. Our
greatest advantage in the
world has always been
our educated, hard-work
ing, ambitious people
- and we are going to keep
that edge.”
President Bush spoke
with a positive attitude
towards America’s econ
omy saying that even with all the
obstacles, we have created around
4.6 million jobs in the last two and
half years. This is more than Japan
and the European Union combined.
He also expressed his wishes that
Congress will make his recent tax
breaks permanent. One of the Pres
ident’s goals is to make America
more competitive. He plans to do
this by cutting programs that are
not working. He says there are
too many special interest projects
and by reforming these projects he
could save taxpayers $14 billion
next year.
A large portion of the speech con
centrated on the War on Terror. He
declared his support for the war and
his disdain for retreat: “In a time of
testing, we cannot find security by
abandoning our commitments and
retreating within our borders. If
we were to leave these
vicious attackers alone,
they would not leave
us alone. They would
simply move the battle
field to our own shores.
There is no peace in
retreat. And there is
no honor in retreat. By
allowing radical Islam to
work its will — by leav
ing an assaulted world
to fend for itself - we
would signal to all that
we no longer believe in our ovm
ideals, or even in our own courage.
But our enemies and our fiiends
can be certain: The United States
will not retreat from the world, and
we will never surrender to evil.”
President Bush read a letter
from Marine Staff Sergeant Dan
Clay, who was killed in Fallujah.
In Sergeant Clay’s last letter to his
wife and children he wrote, “I know
what honor is. It has been an honor
to protect and serve all of you. I
faced death with the secure knowl
edge that you would not have to....
Never falter! Don’t hesitate to
honor and support those of us who
have the honor of protecting that
which is worth protecting.”
Tliose are the President’s main
goals for America. Will he be able
to accomplish these optimistic and
drastic changes? President Bush
ended his speech with: “Before
history is written down in books, it
is written in courage. Like Ameri
cans before us, we will show that
courage and we will finish well.
We will lead freedom’s advance.
We will compete and excel in the
global economy. We will renew the
defining moral commitments of
this land. And so we move forward
- optimistic about our country,
faithful to its cause, and confident
of victories to come. Thank you,
God bless you, and may God bless
America.”
Baghdad Blasts Kill at Least 35
BBC News Press Release
At least 35 people have been
killed and scores injured by four
bomb blasts in Baghdad, a day
after a curfew to stop escalating
violence was lifted.
In the bloodiest attack, 24
people were killed when a suicide
bomber blew himself up next to a
petrol station in a Shia district of
the city. US President George W
Bush denounced the recent vio
lence, saying Iraqis had to choose
between “chaos or unity”. As the
carnage continued, Saddam Hus
sein’s trial resumed in Baghdad.
The former president and seven
co-defendants are charged with
killing 148 people in the town of
Dujail after a failed assassination
attempt against him.
In other developments:
• The bodies of nine Iraqis,
including a Sunni Arab tribal
leader, are found, riddled with bul
lets, in Tarfaya, south of the city of
Baquba
• Two British soldiers are
killed and another is injured by a
roadside bomb on the outskirts of
Amara, in southern Iraq
• A US soldier is killed
by small-arms fire in the west of
Baghdad
• A bomb damages a
mosque erected by Saddam Hus
sein over his father’s grave in his
hometown of Tikrit.
The BBC’s Jim Muir in Bagh
dad says the latest attacks were an
apparently co-ordinated onslaught
aimed at killing and injuring as
many people as possible. They
come amid growing fears of a
slide towards sectarian strife that
has gathered momentum sharply
since last week’s attack on the
Shia shrine in Samarra, he adds.
Decrying the upsurge in violence.
President Bush said the perpetra
tors wanted to “destroy in order
to create chaos”. “The people of
Iraq and their leaders must make
a choice. The choice is chaos or
unity. The choice is a free society
or a society dictated by evil people
who will kill iimocents,” he said.
Twin blasts
The first car bomb exploded
near a market and the Timimi
mosque in the mainly Shia area of
Karrada. The market would have
been fairly busy at the time, police
said. The capital was rocked by
two simultaneous explosions
Courtesy of BBC News
minutes afterwards. A car bomb
exploded near the main post office
in a busy street, while the suicide
bomber, who had strapped explo
sives to his body, blew himself up
among a queue of people waiting
for petrol nearby. “If the govern
ment cannot do anything, let it step
back. We have suffered enough,”
Firas Hassan Illiwi, who witnessed
the attack, told the Reuters news
agency. “Why does all this happen
to us? Is it because we are Shias?
Our crime is being Shias.”
The five defence ministiy work
ers died when their convoy was
hit by a roadside bomb in eastern
Baghdad. On Tuesday, the Iraqi
government said 379 people had
been killed and 458 injured in
violence since the bombing of the
Shia shrine in Samarra on 22 Feb
ruary. It denied figures reported in
the Washington Post newspaper
that put the death toll at 1,300.
Page! 0, Mar. 2,2006
The Whetstone