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I only heard bits and pieces of the State of the Union address. Thanks to the Times for publishing the whole text on the Web site.
I heard Mr. Bush talking about a country ruled by "an unelected few" and naturally I thought he was talking about himself and Mr. Cheney. After all, they are only in office because of the systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans in Florida and Tennessee. What a surprise to find he was talking about Iran!
I heard Mr. Bush talk about a government that harbored training schools for "thousands of dangerous killers, schooled in the methods of murder." Without a doubt, he must have been referring to the United States' School of the Americas, whose graduates have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Latin Americans. But no, unexpectedly he was talking about the Taliban in Afghanistan!
I heard Mr. Bush talk about a country "arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction." Of course he must have meant the U.S. with our deadly cluster bombs, and our nuclear, chemical and germ weapons. Of course it's dangerous - our military can't even hold on to its own anthrax stocks. How astonished I was to read that Mr. Bush was referring to North Korea!
I heard Mr. Bush mention "a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world." No doubt he was referring to the U.S. which covertly brought the Taliban to power and supported al Qaeda - among many nefarious covert operations. Amazingly, Mr. Bush was talking about Iraq, which has been under intensive scrutiny by the United Nations weapons inspectors and oil-for-food administrators for the past decade!
Mr. Bush wants to "eliminate the terrorist parasites." If so, Mr. Bush should start with a long, hard look in the mirror....
- - Jean Buskin, Seattle
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