Opinion

Bush's speech unrealistic hype

Matthew Baker
Guest Columnist 

George Bushis State of the Union address Tuesday was nothing more than an attempt to gain popularity among the American people. 

However, his speech contained holes that proved many of his plans and proposals to be implausible, and the foundation on which he built those plans to be inaccurate.

Bush proposed more than $26 billion in world and national benefit plans, including an AIDS relief program in Africa, mentoring for Americais youth and hydrogen-powered cars. I agree that these are wonderful ideas that would greatly help our country; however, they conflict with his plan of improving the economy by initiating a huge tax cut. How does he plan on funding these programs while decreasing the amount of money the country takes in?

The answer is deficit spending. This solution is nothing short of instant gratification. While it provides a temporary solution, it will only cost the American people more, further down the road.

Bush also repeatedly labeled the country a "compassionate America." He justified this by stating that the United States provides 60 percent of world aid given to third world countries. I find it interesting that we are helping out so much worldwide when we have 32.9 million people who live in poverty in America (www.secondharvest.org)

Bush also labeled the nation as compassionate on the basis of the United States giving aid to the innocents in Afghanistan. We cut off their trade routes in response to the attack on Sept. 11, so we dropped food and medical supplies into their country. Bush neglected to mention, however, that these supplies were dropped into known mine fields. Women and children ran out to save themselves from starvation and ended up getting limbs blown off in the process

The major issue that the president addressed in his speech was the war on Iraq. This was to be expected since we've been hearing Bush spout off threats and plans to bring down Iraq for more than a year. However, much of his talk has so far not been backed up by any action. He tried the "bluff and scare" tactic but didnit quit at a strategic point. Instead he kept pushing and puffing his chest hoping to make his point more serious.

Bush has what I have termed to be the "John Wayne Syndrome." He wants to play the cowboy hero most citizens expect from a president from Texas. He wants to finish his daddyis fight, and prove that "you donit mess with Dubya!" But his fear has caused him to talk more than take action, and our enemies are ready to call his bluff.

Bushis idle threats will either cause an immense amount of fear in our enemies or they will realize that his words donit amount to anything. Either one of these outcomes is dangerous for America. They both can, and most likely will, result in yet another tragic attack on the United States.

I am personally a pacifist and a humanitarian and against acts of war, but I do think Bush needs to back up his bets with a winning hand. Action needs to be taken, and soon.

Baker, a sophomore natural sciences and mathematics major, can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu.