Mr. Bush gave his State of the Union (SOTU) speech on Tuesday night. He got very high ratings. Some 45 million people were watching to see what he was going to say and propose for our republic. I don’t know what they were expecting or hoping for; but I do know what they got.

It was one of his shorter speeches, lasting only 49 minutes: It just seemed longer. Unlike his last speech to the nation, he didn’t admit that any mistakes had been made in Iraq. Of course when he did say the “mistakes had been made,” in his previous speech; he said it in the passive voice so that the blame couldn’t be placed at the clay feet of this administration.

He couldn’t avoid the subject of Iraq: it took up half of his 49 minutes. But, this time he was asking the newly-emboldened Democratic Congress to give war a chance (An aside here: he referred to Congress as Democrat, leaving off the “ic.” This is Republican tactic designed to annoy Democrats. Somehow it’s supposed to deny Democrats the ability to be democratic. What it is, in reality, is petty. It shows Republicans for what they are. Shall we now call Republicans, “Republics”?).

Returning to the SOTU: there were some subjects that came up more than in the past. These subjects were health insurance, oil, Iraq, Al Qaeda, terrorism, and deficits. What was even more interesting were those things that came up less or not at all in Tuesday night’s speech: surpluses, Social Security, taxes, and the economy. Finally, Osama bin Laden was mentioned just once. Yes, he is Osama bin Forgotten as far as George W. Bush is concerned.

The speech was filled with half-truths, false dichotomies, and obfuscations. Health insurance was an interesting topic. Mr. Bush stopped short of saying the health insurance should be universal. George Bush doesn’t see a healthy life as a human right. He proposed a plan designed to fail that involved tax credits and a heavier burden on the middle class than on the people who can afford to help life the burden the most: the wealthy. Nowhere was the suggestion that we share the burden as a country.

As to oil, he proposed that we use less oil without putting forward a concrete plan to move American energy consumption to something other than fossil fuel. He gave it lip service, but this oil man hasn’t given up on fossil fuel consumption yet.

He certainly didn’t address the corruption that has run rampant for the last 6 years of his administration. He didn’t discuss the no-bid contracts in Iraq. He didn’t bring up Mssr. DeLay, Cunningham, Ney, Libby, or any of the other sordid bit players in this corrupt administration.

In the end, it was his sad defence of his war on the Iraqi people that was stomach turning. The question left unanswered was, why? Why should we allow him to spend more blood and treasure on what the overwhelming majority of Americans (and the world) consider a mistake and a lost cause?

He summed up his argument saying, “We went into this largely united, in our assumptions and in our convictions . . . and whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure.” No one voted for what he has given us either. Why should we give more of our children, Iraqi children, our treasure, Iraqi treasure to prolong an unmitigated disaster?

Thucydides wrote more than 2,500 years ago about a mis-adventure that led the Greeks to ruin in Sicily. The neo-cons of the time assured the Greek populace and leaders that the Sicilians would greet them with flowers and come over to the Greek side. Is any of this sounding familiar? In the end, the war of choice that the Greeks pursued against Sicily ended up destroying the Greek democracy and saw the rise of Sparta as a force in the ancient world.

In those days, the Greek soldiers who weren’t killed out right were sold into slavery. At least our brave soldiers won’t be sold into slavery. They aren’t dying on the battlefield in the numbers of previous wars; but they are coming home irretrievably broken. No amount of bionic legs can make someone whole again. The numbers of brain injuries are staggering. This is by-product of IEDs, the weapon of choice in Iraq.

We are fighting an asymmetrical war. It’s war that a conventional army cannot win. Ask the French and the Russians. We should have learned from the French catastrophes in Dien Bien Phu and Algeria. Baring that, we should have learned from the Russians’ experience in Afghanistan.
This is not a ‘war’ that can be won by a military. This ‘war’ needs good intelligence, good police work, and patience. Mr. Bush has not availed himself of the first two and he doesn’t seem to have any of the third.

In the film, “The Wizard of Oz,” the Cowardly Lion was a tremendous bully before Dorothy gave his nose a whack. Someone needs to give George W. Bush a whack across the nose. The resolutions that Congress is going to pass will come close, but only if a large number of Republicans join in will the resolutions have the sting that’s needed to stop the madness at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. God help us one and all.

Please give what you can to Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders).

And, of course

*Bert Lahr (Cowardly Lion): Courage! What makes a king out of a slave?
Courage!
What makes the flag on the mast to wave?
Courage!
What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk?
What makes the muskrat guard his musk?
Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder?
Courage!
What makes the dawn come up like thunder?
Courage!
What makes the Hottentot so hot?
What puts the “ape” in apricot?
What have they got that I ain’t got?
All: Courage!
Bert Lahr (Cowardly Lion): You can say that again! Huh?