White House Quietly Retracts Entire State Of The Union Address
The Onion WASHINGTON, DC - In a brief statement faxed to major media outlets at approximately 11:50 p.m. Friday, the White House retracted the entire 5,600-word State of the Union address delivered by President Bush last Tuesday. "This includes all components of the address, and is not limited to the president's congratulations to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi or his plan to give more Americans affordable health care through tax cuts, which has since been deemed infeasible," the statement read in part. "Furthermore, the president's urge for bipartisanship as well as his final statement about the state of the union being 'strong' are hereby stricken from the public record." Like the State of the Union address itself, the White House's retraction has not yet become a significant national news story.
The largest of the demonstrations was in Washington, D.C., where "a raucous and colorful multitude of protesters ... danced, sang, chanted and shouted their opposition" in front of the Capitol (Washington Post, 1/28/07). While most estimates put the crowd in D.C. at 100-150,000, organizers for United for Peace and Justice claimed up to 500,000 attended. There were also smaller demonstrations in dozens of cities and towns across the country, including rallies of several thousand in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
A year ago, I said this was a failed policy wrapped in an illusion. The President has finally acknowledged this.
Five months ago, we put an additional 10,000 troops in Baghdad. Attacks increased and a record number of Americans and Iraqis were killed. I see no difference between this and the President's plan to "stay the course."
I am particularly disappointed that there are no credible benchmarks and no way to measure the military and economic progress of this operation. There is no incentive for the Iraqis to take over.
All of us want stability in the Middle East, and Iraq is an important element in achieving that stability. But the military and their families deserve an achievable mission. It is unacceptable to me that we are sending troops back to Iraq who have not completed their training cycle and that we are extending troops who are battle-weary from the intensive combat in Iraq.
A year ago, I called for a redeployment of our forces and predicted that this "stay the course" policy would adversely affect our military readiness. The Defense Subcommittee will begin holding extensive hearings on January 17th to determine how we can best restore the readiness and strategic reserve of our military.
FAIR
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