President George W. Bush last spoke to the nation on May 1 when he landed on the deck of USS Abraham Lincoln. On the deck of the mighty aircraft carrier, he declared that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”
Since the start of combat, 1,461 US troops were wounded as of September 8, according to ABCNews. Since that historic day on the deck of the USS Lincoln, 149 US troops were killed as opposed to 138 troops during the “major conflict.” Because of the growing number of US military casualties as well as his falling popularity, the President decided to speak to the nation but four days prior to the two-year anniversary of the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
In his speech said to “keep you informed of America’s actions in the war on terror,” President Bush attempted to increase his popularity among other things. Of course, he started his speech by reminding the country of the horrible acts perptrated two years ago today. The President then attempted to include the United Nations and other international involvement in the Iraqi reconstruction project. While the President refused to listen to the U.N. prior to the invasion of Iraq, he now wants them to assist with the reconstruction of the crippled nation.
By getting more international troops into Iraq, the bloodshed of American soldiers would likely drop dramatically and thus get many of Bush’s staunchest opponent’s off his back. Additionally, as more and more US soldiers fall in the Iraqi sun, it is less and less likely for Bush to be re-elected President of the United States.
Secondly, President Bush wants Congress to give him $87 billion, triple what the Bush administration had originally projected, for the combined reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan.
I do not disagree with this. I believe that if the US starts the war then the US ought to finish the war properly. As a nation, we owe to the Iraqi people to rebuild their nation to its full potential. After all, we did go into Iraq, at least partly, to liberate the Iraqi people from tyranny.T Tyranny does not only include the treatment of people but also the conditions the citizens are forced to endure.
I was disappointed not to see the President speak more about an exit strategy from Afghanistan or Iraq. If the speech was truly an update to the American people then he owed it to the American people to explain what his strategy for leaving the two chaos-ridden nations was. How will we know when the wars are over if we don’t know when and how we will leave the two Middle-Eastern countries?
In his seventeen-minute address, he failed to give the American people more specific information regarding the future of the two conflicts, as he ought to have.
In his next national address, I hope to see President Bush discuss more about our future engagements with the world rather than just our present situations.
