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Bush’s speech is another failure for Americans

In a brief State of the Union Address on Tuesday, Bush provided America with philosophical solutions rather than proposing new policies.

Bush's ratings have dropped from 50 percent to 38 percent in the last year.

He was well aware that his audience would be skeptical after Hurricane Katrina, growing casualties in Iraq and rising gas prices.

Bush made general promises to his audience by pointing out problems with energy sources and health care after spending the majority of the speech trying to convince America that troops should stay in Iraq.

He said that the United States will never retreat from the world and will never surrender from evil.

He also said that liberty is the right and hope of all humanity. Apparently "all humanity" is a selective America whose ideals support "no peace in retreat."

The official Democratic Party response to the address, delivered by the Governor of the State of Virginia, Tim Kaine, was to point to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Democrats have argued that much of America's economy was devoted to keeping troops in Iraq at a time when U.S. citizens needed support.

Democrat John Kerry responded to the address by saying, "President Bush uses national security as a political weapon while day by day we beome less secure. President Bush needs to stop retreating from reality."

Bush promoted the surveillance of international communications, which Democrats have argued against because they say it is an encroachment of an individual's right to privacy.

In the same sentence, Bush included the transition to alternative energy sources from oil, claiming that America could then diminish its reliance on Middle East resources.

"America is addicted to oil," Bush said, then mentioned solar and nuclear energy sources.

Bush mentioned the surveillance program after emphasizing a reauthorization of the Patriot Act.

He said that America could have been prepared to detect terrorist attacks if there had been proper surveillance.

"We now know that two of the hijackers in the U.S. placed telephone calls to Al Qaeda operatives overseas. But we did not know about their plans until it was too late," Bush said.

He promised America that "we will not be hit again" when he stressed that the program is necessary for detecting phone calls to or from members of Al Qaeda.

Bush listed the reasons why America should stay in involved in international politics and included HIV and AIDS, malaria, poverty and the slave trade of women as detrimental aspects that need to be reformed by democracy.

He called this ongoing suffering a form of terrorism, and then followed this segment minutes later by saying, "The enemy has not lost the desire to attack us.

"We seek the end of tyranny in this world," Bush said.

He said that Sept. 11 proved that the force of dictatorship sheltered the terrorists who harbored weapons of mass destruction, despite the fact that no weapons were ever discovered in Iraq.

Bush then skimmed over America's domestic and economic matters with an ambiguous statement that we should "eliminate programs that are performing badly."

He said that the retirement of the Baby Boom generation will cause bankruptcy and that eliminating these programs is the resolution.