Folks, We have read the Washington Post editorial. I did not want to clug your inboxes with the LA Times' editorial but can assure you it is similar to the WPost's position. However, the NYT has a different opinion and thus only fair to post for those debating the Iraq question to read other positions. I am sure there are many other shades of opinions being expressed by papers across America after GW's State of the Union Message and I will be sampling some of them while being holded up in my coop. Cheers!!! Sidi Sanneh ----------------------------------------------------------- The Nation, the President, the War resident Bush sought to revive a sense of national resolve last night with a State of the Union address that readied the country for a showdown with Iraq and demanded another huge tax cut for wealthier Americans. No one watching the somber Mr. Bush's delivery could doubt his determination. But the combination created far too mixed a message. It was hard to reconcile the president who vowed not to "pass along our problems to other Congresses, to other presidents and other generations" with the one whose fiscal policies have helped create gigantic deficits for taxpayers of the future. Still, anyone who had forgotten the president's "compassionate conservative" agenda was reminded last night of his ability to create bold and surprising initiatives that breach the gulf between left and right. There were some of those ideas in his agenda, particularly the most welcome proposal to spend an additional $10 billion over the next five years fighting AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean. Though Mr. Bush reserved his passion for the topic of Iraq, he opened with his domestic agenda, an attempt to reassure nervous voters that his concentration on foreign affairs has not made him forget the problems back home. The big idea unveiled last night was a much-anticipated plan to begin offering politically popular prescription drug benefits to the elderly. The catch in this proposal is that it would make drug coverage available only through private health plans, not the fee-for-service Medicare, and he will need to make a strong case why drug coverage should not be provided through both systems. The president reintroduced his $670 billion tax-cut plan, including a proposal to eliminate dividend taxes that even many of his loyal supporters have declared dead on arrival. The plan is tilted toward the wealthiest Americans and has very little that would stimulate the economy. At a time when the country may be taking on the expense of an overseas war and is continuing the fight against domestic terrorism, this is radical right-wing economics, dogma Mr. Bush cannot keep peddling if he hopes to unite the country behind his foreign agenda. He also said nothing about help for the states and localities struggling under the burden of the stagnant economy. For all his talk about the need to cut taxes, the Bush administration seems indifferent to the fact that local property and sales taxes are soaring all around the country — the very levies most likely to discourage consumer spending. The possibility of war with Iraq overshadowed the president's other themes. Mr. Bush has always done a good job of arguing that Saddam Hussein is dangerous, and he did so again last night. He methodically recounted all the good, though circumstantial, reasons the administration believes "the dictator of Iraq is not disarming ... he is deceiving," and the well-documented evidence that Mr. Hussein is a cruel despot who uses torture against his own citizens. "Your enemy is not surrounding your country, your enemy is ruling your country," he told the Iraqi people. But the president has never been as effective in making the case for immediate intervention or for going to war absent broad international support. While there is a natural fear that Iraq might give arms or biological weapons to terrorists, the administration has not been able to connect those dots, or even to demonstrate that Iraq has a history of aiding terrorism as clear as that of some American allies in the region. We welcome the president's decision to bring the question of Iraq's conduct back to the United Nations next Wednesday and to provide new intelligence that will bolster the administration's case. More troubling was his threat to attack Iraq even without Security Council support. Mr. Bush's language and his intensity left little doubt that his path was set, no matter what the rest of the international community decides. Mr. Bush's personal popularity hinges on his obvious sincerity and determination to show leadership in fearsome times. He has lost none of the daring and conviction that got him where he is today — a man who enjoys political power matched by few presidents in American history. But as he heads into his own re-election cycle with a war plan at the top of his agenda, the state of the union that the president leads is clearly laced with anxiety and doubt. _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~