WASHINGTON (KRT) — President Bush asked the American people Tuesday night to stay the course in the war to root out terrorism, not only in Afghanistan but around the globe.
In his first State of the Union Address, Bush made clear that the war that seemed so straightforward in Afghanistan is about to get more complicated. White House officials said intelligence reports show that as many as 100,000 terrorists were trained in Afghanistan and many have moved to other countries.
Riding a high tide of popularity since the Sept. 11 attack on America, Bush used his address to lay out three priorities for his second year in office: winning the war on terrorism, protecting the homeland from further assaults and reviving the economy.
“What we have found in Afghanistan confirms that, far from ending there, our war against terror is only beginning,” the president said, according to excerpts of his speech that the White House released. U.S. special forces already have been deployed to the Philippines and are expected to fan out to other trouble spots in the months ahead.
America will be “steadfast, patient and persistent,” Bush said, as it seeks to block terrorists and regimes that sponsor them from committing further atrocities.
“The United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons,” the president warned.
It was his third speech in a year to a joint session of Congress, but his first formal State of the Union address. His debut speech last year unveiled his budget.
With the nation in recession and Bush presiding over the first federal budget deficit in four years, he did not offer the usual list of spending proposals that mark most State of the Union speeches.
The administration is proposing a huge increase in defense spending — $48 billion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 — for a total Pentagon budget of $379 billion. If Congress approves, the increase would be the largest in two decades.
Bush also is asking for $37.7 billion for homeland security, double the current budget for that post-Sept. 11 program. He said he would focus these efforts on “four key areas: bioterrorism, emergency response, airport and border security and improved intelligence,” according to the excerpts from his speech.
In an effort to boost the economy, the president pushed Congress to pass tax breaks for businesses and extra relief for the unemployed “in the same spirit of cooperation we have applied in our war on terrorism,” the excerpts said.
Bush addressed the mushrooming Enron debacle delicately. He chose not to point fingers, but to call for stricter accounting practices and corporate disclosure.
The official Democratic Party response to Bush’s address reflected the public’s broad bipartisan support for the war. House of Representatives Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri assured the president and the nation that the country speaks with one voice against terrorism.
“Like generations that came before us, we will pay any price and bear any burden to make sure that this proud nation wins the first war of the 21st century,” Gephardt said, according to prepared remarks. Since Sept. 11, he said, “There has been no daylight between us in this war on terrorism. We have met almost every single week and built a bipartisan consensus that is helping America win this war.”
But Gephardt noted growing partisan divisions over domestic issues, intensified in this election year when control of both houses of Congress is up for grabs. The House Democratic leader said Democrats would not necessarily side with Bush on such issues as tax cuts, Social Security, Medicare, overhauling campaign-finance laws and the bankruptcy of Enron.
“I refuse to accept that while we stand shoulder to shoulder-on-the war, we should stand toe-to-toe on the economy,” Gephardt said.
© 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune
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