One year ago, President George W. Bush appeared before the nation in his State of the Union address and laid out his case for war against Iraq.
Bush cited Iraq's stockpiles of anthrax, VX nerve agent and sarin gas. He cited Iraq's pursuit of uranium from a country in Africa. He suggested Iraq had ties to al-Qaeda, and urged the nation to support an immediate disarmament of Saddam Hussein.
One year later, the invasion is over, and a lengthy and costly occupation has begun.
The stockpiles of anthrax, VX nerve agent and sarin gas have not been discovered.
Not one drop of dangerous chemical or biological agents have been found.
The claim Iraq sought uranium from Africa has been thoroughly refuted and the Bush administration even withdrew that assertion.
No ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda have been found.
Yet, Bush had the audacity to stride into Congress last night and declare that had America failed to act against Iraq, "the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day."
This utterly false justification for the war against Iraq is reason enough for Bush to be handed a one-way ticket out of Washington this November.
The least Bush could have done is admit he was wrong in the case he laid out for war and focused instead on the alleged positive aspects of the war - the supposed liberation of the Iraqi people, creating a "democratic" example in the Middle East and so on.
Even that case for war doesn't fly, as America has wasted thousands of innocent lives and spent billions of the country's dollars on an illegal war that only served to "liberate" the people of Iraq from a dictator whose murderous acts were often directly facilitated by America itself, and who could have easily been neutralized through international diplomatic avenues.
In any case, Bush could have been honest. Instead, he told a direct lie to the American public, challenging our intelligence.
Bush, wearing a brilliant red tie less indicative of the assertiveness he intended to convey with the neckpiece and more representative of the blood that's been shed by his administration this past year, devoted more than 35 minutes of the 60-minute speech to supposed threats our nation faces.
He began by stating that "each day, law enforcement personnel and intelligence officers are tracking terrorist threats; analysts are examining airline passenger lists; the men and women of our new Homeland Security Department are patrolling our coasts and borders."
Bush was simply continuing his party's strategy of creating an atmosphere of constant danger, to the end of creating a fear that supersedes reason and rationality in the voting booth.
If people are scared for their very lives, and see Bush as a protector against the nebulous "terrorist," it's easier for them to ignore a skyrocketing debt, a stagnant economy or suddenly narrowed civil liberties.
Bush used this tactic to scare the American public into supporting an illegal and immoral war one year ago, despite overwhelming evidence that Iraq was barely a threat to our country - but it's not too late for Americans to avoid making the same mistake twice.
By rejecting Bush's message of fear in favor of an attitude of progress and hope, we will all be better off.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
