US: State of The Union 2004 by Boston Globe / The Independent 12:46pm 21st Jan, 2004   January 20, 2004    "Addressing Bush's State of Disunion" by James Carroll. (Published by the Boston Globe)    In his State of the Union address tonight, President Bush will speak of the nightmare he has created in Iraq as if it is a dream come true. Yet the contrary facts of the American misadventure have begun to speak for themselves. When the awful story of the Iraq war is written, the two weeks just past may be recognized as a time when the deception and disarray of Bush's policy were made more clear than ever. These are events to which the president will not refer tonight, yet taken together, they reveal the true state of his disunion:    On Jan. 4, the tape of a belligerent voice claiming to be Osama bin Laden was broadcast on Al Jazeera television. The next day the CIA confirmed that it was bin Laden, and that, made recently, the tape showed he is still alive.    On Jan. 8, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace rebutted major Bush claims on Iraq, concluding that "administration officials systematically misrepresented the threat from Iraq WMD and ballistic missile programs."    On Jan. 11, on television, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill confirmed reports in Ron Suskind's "The Price of Loyalty" that the Bush administration planned war against Iraq before 9/11, "from the very beginning."    On Jan. 12, a paper published at the Army War College described the war on terrorism as "strategically unfocused." The assessment from within the military itself blasted the Bush-led effort because it "promises more than it can deliver, and threatens to dissipate US military resources in an endless and hopeless search for absolute security."    On Jan. 13, the Bush administration reversed itself to announce that Canada could participate in contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq. Washington's punitive rejection of countries that had opposed the war was not working.    On Jan. 14, Human Rights Watch issued a report that held some US tactics in Iraq to be in violation of the Geneva Conventions, including home demolitions that "did not meet the test of military necessity." The report accused the army of arresting and holding Iraqi civilians simply because they were relatives of fugitives.    On Jan. 14, it was reported that the captured Saddam Hussein was in possession of a letter he had written instructing his followers not to throw in with foreign fighters, further puncturing the myth that Hussein was in active alliance with Al Qaeda.    On Jan. 14, a secret study conducted by the US Army Command in Baghdad was published. It faulted the army's tactics in Iraq as needlessly confrontational, and it asserted -- against the claims of the Bush administration -- that "the capture of Saddam will have nominal effect within Iraqi borders."    On Jan. 15, responding to Shi'ite leader Ayatollah Ali Sistani, 30,000 Iraqis took to the streets to protest American plans for transition to Iraqi rule, making even more unlikely Washington's fantasy that Iraq will not join Iran as a Shi'ite dominated state. Will that put Iraq back on the axis of evil?    On Jan. 15, the Bush administration was reported to be considering opening Iraq reconstruction contracts to France, Germany, and Russia, as it had to Canada. Washington is scrambling.    By Jan. 19, yesterday, the Bush administration had reversed itself to press at the United Nations for urgent help with the transition to Iraqi self-government, the clearest sign yet that Washington's go-it-alone policy had failed.    In the days before the State of the Union address one year ago, the Bush administration denigrated UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, dismissing the inspections and containment strategy favored at the United Nations. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld mocked what he called "old Europe." Secretary of State Colin Powell promised to provide compelling evidence of Saddam Hussein's imminent threat. The State Department published an indictment of Saddam entitled "Apparatus of Lies."    In the State of the Union address itself, President Bush bragged that he had "liberated" Afghanistan -- a country which today, except for a small zone around Kabul, belongs to warlords. He boasted that "one by one terrorists are learning the meaning of American justice" -- thinking, perhaps, of the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, where American justice is mocked.    Bush detailed a long list of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. He said that Iraq had obtained "uranium from Africa," and he referred to certain metal tubes to suggest a nuclear weapons program. He said that Saddam Hussein "aids and protects" Al Qaeda, and, projecting into the future, he linked the 9/11 hijackers with Saddam. He promised that Colin Powell would provide evidence of the link between Saddam and the terrorists.    The president set a rigorous standard last year, constructing an apparatus of lies it will be hard to match tonight. One bald falsehood not even he will dare repeat: "We seek peace," Bush said a year ago, "We strive for peace."    © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.    January 20, 2004    "George W Bush and the Real State of the Union" (Published by the lndependent / UK)    Today the President gives his annual address. As the election battle begins, how does his first term add up?    232: Number of American combat deaths in Iraq between May 2003 and January 2004    501: Number of American servicemen to die in Iraq from the beginning of the war - so far    0: Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender to the Allies in May 1945    0: Number of coffins of dead soldiers returning home from Iraq that the Bush administration has allowed to be photographed    0: Number of funerals or memorials that President Bush has attended for soldiers killed in Iraq    100: Number of fund-raisers attended by Bush or Vice-President Dick Cheney in 2003    13: Number of meetings between Bush and Tony Blair since he became President    10 million: Estimated number of people worldwide who took to the streets in opposition to the invasion of Iraq, setting an all-time record for simultaneous protest    2: Number of nations that Bush has attacked and taken over since coming into the White House    9.2: Average number of American soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since the invasion in March last year    1.6: Average number of American soldiers killed in Iraq per day since hostilities began    16,000: Approximate number of Iraqis killed since the start of war    10,000: Approximate number of Iraqi civilians killed since the beginning of the conflict    $100 billion: Estimated cost of the war in Iraq to American citizens by the end of 2003    $13 billion: Amount other countries have committed towards rebuilding Iraq (much of it in loans) as of 24 October    36%: Increase in the number of desertions from the US army since 1999    92%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that had access to drinkable water a year ago    60%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that have access to drinkable water today    32%: Percentage of the bombs dropped on Iraq this year that were not precision-guided    1983: The year in which Donald Rumsfeld gave Saddam Hussein a pair of golden spurs    45%: Percentage of Americans who believed in early March 2003 that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks on the US    $127 billion: Amount of US budget surplus in the year that Bush became President in 2001    $374 billion: Amount of US budget deficit in the fiscal year for 2003    1st: This year's deficit is on course to be the biggest in United States history    $1.58 billion: Average amount by which the US national debt increases each day    $23,920: Amount of each US citizen's share of the national debt as of 19 January 2004    1st: The record for the most bankruptcies filed in a single year (1.57 million) was set in 2002    10: Number of solo press conferences that Bush has held since beginning his term. His father had managed 61 at this point in his administration, and Bill Clinton 33    1st: Rank of the US worldwide in terms of greenhouse gas emissions per capita    $113 million: Total sum raised by the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, setting a record in American electoral history    $130 million: Amount raised for Bush's re-election campaign so far    $200m: Amount that the Bush-Cheney campaign is expected to raise in 2004    $40m: Amount that Howard Dean, the top fund-raiser among the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls, amassed in 2003    28: Number of days holiday that Bush took last August, the second longest holiday of any president in US history (Record holder: Richard Nixon)    13: Number of vacation days the average American worker receives each year    3: Number of children convicted of capital offences executed in the US in 2002. America is only country openly to acknowledge executing children    1st: As Governor of Texas, George Bush executed more prisoners (152) than any governor in modern US history    2.4 million: Number of Americans who have lost their jobs during the three years of the Bush administration    221,000: Number of jobs per month created since Bush's tax cuts took effect. He promised the measure would add 306,000    1,000: Number of new jobs created in the entire country in December. Analysts had expected a gain of 130,000    1st: This administration is on its way to becoming the first since 1929 (Herbert Hoover) to preside over an overall loss of jobs during its complete term in office    9 million: Number of US workers unemployed in September 2003    80%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce now unemployed    55%: Percentage of the Iraqi workforce unemployed before the war    43.6 million: Number of Americans without health insurance in 2002    130: Number of countries (out of total of 191 recognized by the United Nations) with an American military presence    40%: Percentage of the world's military spending for which the US is responsible    $10.9 million: Average wealth of the members of Bush's original 16-person cabinet    88%: Percentage of American citizens who will save less than $100 on their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and dividends taxes    $42,000: Average savings members of Bush's cabinet are expected to enjoy this year as a result in the cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes    $42,228: Median household income in the US in 2001    $116,000: Amount Vice-President Cheney is expected to save each year in taxes    44%: Percentage of Americans who believe the President's economic growth plan will mostly benefit the wealthy    700: Number of people from around the world the US has incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba    1st: George W Bush became the first American president to ignore the Geneva Conventions by refusing to allow inspectors access to US-held prisoners of war    +6%: Percentage change since 2001 in the number of US families in poverty    1951: Last year in which a quarterly rise in US military spending was greater than the one the previous spring    54%: Percentage of US citizens who believe Bush was legitimately elected to his post    1st: First president to execute a federal prisoner in the past 40 years. Executions are typically ordered by separate states and not at federal level    9: Number of members of Bush's defense policy board who also sit on the corporate board of, or advise, at least one defense contractor    35: Number of countries to which US has suspended military assistance after they failed to sign agreements giving Americans immunity from prosecution before the International Criminal Court    $300 million: Amount cut from the federal program that provides subsidies to poor families so they can heat their homes    $1 billion: Amount of new US military aid promised Israel in April 2003 to offset the "burdens" of the US war on Iraq    58 million: Number of acres of public lands Bush has opened to road building, logging and drilling    200: Number of public-health and environmental laws Bush has attempted to downgrade or weaken    29,000: Number of American troops - which is close to the total of a whole army division - to have either been killed, wounded, injured or become so ill as to require evacuation from Iraq, according to the Pentagon    90%: Percentage of American citizens who said they approved of the way George Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 26 September, 2001    53%: Percentage of American citizens who approved of the way Bush was handling his job as president when asked on 16 January, 2004    © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd    "State of the Union Scorecard" (Published by Tompaine.com)    Health Care    " 44 million Americans, 15 percent of population, including 8.5 million children, don't have health insurance. As the ranks of the uninsured have swelled and health costs have skyrocketed, the Bush administration has responded aggressively with the only kind of public policy it believes in: giveaways for large corporations. In this case, HMOs and drug companies were the big winners". General Wesley Clark http://www.clark04.com    "With Americans paying the highest price for drugs in the world, Bush pushed through a prescription drug bill that actually prohibits Medicare from negotiating a lower price for seniors.  He turned a $400 billion benefit for seniors into a subsidy for the drug companies that help pay for his party".- Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future http://www.ourfuture.org    Jobs and Economic Recovery    "Two million fewer jobs than when Bush took office. Tax cuts promising 300,000 new jobs a month never reached one-third of that goal. In December 2003, only 1,000 new jobs created. New jobs pay less than those lost. Under Bush's watch, companies like Tyco avoid paying $400 million a year in U.S taxes through shell headquarters offshore, while they are rewarded with $331million in Federal contracts in 2002. George W Bush has chosen tax cuts for the wealthy and special favors for the special interests over our economic future".- Senator John Kerry http://www.johnkerry.com    "The Bush economic policy of multi-trillion dollar tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy has totally failed American workers. Since Bush became President, we've lost 2.3 million jobs altogether, 2.6 million manufacturing jobs and 2.9 million private sector jobs - and the jobs that are being created are not good family-supporting jobs with benefits. To the extent that there is an economic recovery, it has completely bypassed working people." - John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO http://www.aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/jobs/jobcrisis.cfm    "Working families are still facing sizable economic problems that are not likely to be solved over the next year. The economy may be looking brighter on spreadsheets, but their economy -- the one they live in -- is plagued by shrunken paychecks, fears of job loss and little opportunity.    Even though production has been growing for more than two years, the United States has just experienced the sharpest loss of jobs this far into a recovery since the Great Depression, with nearly 2.9 million private- sector jobs lost. For every job vacancy there are now three unemployed workers, and nearly half of all Americans personally know someone who has lost their job. We are a long way from a healthy labor market with strong real-wage improvements and unemployment steadily dropping toward the 4 percent level we enjoyed in 2000. In economic terms, there is a huge gap between the rising GDP, productivity and capital investment that is exciting business analysis and the business press and what is happening in the labor market."    -  Lawrence Mishel, President, Economic Policy Institute http://www.jobwatch.org    Funding Education    No Child Left Behind law $7 billion short.    "On education, Bush is all talk and no money. Pell Grants have been level-funded, HeadStart was cut, GEARUP was slashed, IDEA is still under-funded, Teach for America lost its money. College tuition has increased nationwide – as much as 117% in some states. If the Bush Administration was truly committed to the next generation, they would ante up and fund education initiatives. It's time for a progressive, renewed commitment to education."    -  Gloria A. Totten, Executive Director, Progressive Majority http://www.progressivemajority.org    “Year after year President Bush has refused to provide our students with the dollars promised in his No Child Left Behind Act. This consistent denial of the resources needed to succeed, combined with an over-reliance on standardized testing to judge the quality of our public schools is a sure recipe for declaring America's public schools as "failing" and moving us towards the private school voucher system President Bush has always desired.”    -  Bethany Little , Associate Director, White House Domestic Policy under President Clinton    Environment    Landmark environmental laws weakened. Allowable levels of mercury from power plants tripled. Superfund clean-up costs shifted from polluters to public. Clean Air Act rules for dirtiest power plants relaxed.    "President Bush says he cares about clean air, clean water, and America 's natural heritage but when push comes to shove his administration sides with corporate special interests at the expense of public health and our environment . "     -  Karen Wayland, Legislative Director, Natural Resources Defense Council    For NRDC's account of what the Bush administration has done and is doing on environmental matters, check out:     http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord      State & Federal Spending    States face largest budget crises in decades. Federal deficit has hit a new high. $87 billion spent on Irag as U.S. non-defense domestic spending plummets. Meanwhile, White House pushing for new space program, costing estimated hundreds of billions.    “President Bush had no problem finding money for lavish tax breaks for his biggest campaign contributors, or over $150 billion for his misguided war in Iraq . But when it comes to fully funding his No Child Left Behind mandates, schools are out of luck.”    -  Governor Howard Dean , MD http://www.deanforamerica.com
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