Deconstruction of “The State of The Union Speech”

It has been about a month since George W Bush gave his latest State of the Union speech, one in which old lies were reintroduced and facts omitted, a hallmark of all Bush’s State of the Union speeches since 9/11.   Bush reiterated the message that while the mission in Iraq is in fact difficult, American troops understand the importance of succeeding in the war.  Left out of this statement was a poignant indication of just how “difficult” the Iraq mission really is; that the suicide rate of American troops has hit a 26-year high according to Yahoo news, the highest since 1980 when the military first began keeping such records.2006 alone, 99 soldiers ended their lives, one third while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.  Several thousand other soldiers are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. In a report from the Washington Post, a reported 40% of all US troops who are or were stationed in either of these two war-torn countries now show symptoms of the disorder. One third of these cases are Marines while nearly half are from the National Guard.  Most of them suffer from, “depression, anxiety or other potentially disabling mental disorders.”  More troubling is the fact that the mental health facilities designated to care for these soldiers have been described as, “woefully inadequate.”  Now that US troops are experiencing a level of combat unseen since that of Vietnam, according to Vice-Admiral Donald Arthur, co-chairman of the Pentagon’s mental health taskforce, the care provided is falling far short of the rapidly growing need.  As Mr. Arthur states, ” The ongoing ’surge’ of more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan will exacerbate this gap, as will the rapid growth in the number of soldiers, Marines and other troops — now about half a million — who have served more than one combat tour, heightening the risk of mental illnesses”, the report said.  As was the case in Vietnam war, it is safe to assume that because of a lack of health care providers, more than a few soldiers coming home will slip through the cracks and never receive the mental care that is sorely needed.  Read more about this on the Washington post link below.

Alarmingly George W. Bush used Anbar as a model of a military “success story”.  Bush never mentioned that Anbar is actually little more than a ghost town. By the time the marines actually showed up for the invasion, letters had been placed on most of the houses saying that they left because they were afraid of US soldiers and now they (the residents) had gone to live with relatives in neighboring towns.
In the video clip posted below, as reported by the Guardian of London, the marines appear baffled by what they found upon their arrival. The few remaining residents left behind in Anbar, however, describe a bloodbath in which US forces slaughtered many of the locals in their beds wearing their nightclothes.  In the report, one can clearly see the blood soaked gowns.

Shortly after the US attack on Fallujah, which came in response for the killing of three Blackwater contractors, Bush cheerled the assault on that city also. As has been the case with the war so far, the media backed the US aggression with uncritical eyes and no details on the attack itself. An article on counterpunch.com by Chris Floyd entitled, “The White Death of Fallujah” reveals a massacre reminiscent of Nazi Germany.  According to several witnesses, including that of several soldiers present during the attack, the US troops used a high volume of phosphorous shells which burns flesh to the bone. Also used was a new form of napalm which Mr. Floyd writes, “turned human beings into ‘caramelized’ fossils, with their skin dissolved and turned to leather on their bones.”  Equally unconscionable was the targeting of ambulances by American snipers, shooting the vehicles as they entered the town to aid wounded.  Of the 20 national and international news outlets that showed up for  briefing by Health Ministry investigator Dr. Khalid Ash-Shaykhli, not one reported on the attack. This is why Bush can still flagrantly lie about the “success” of attacks of various cities and towns.

Then there is the recycling of the lie that the entire US invasion of Iraq was to bring down the perpetrators of 9-11 when, in fact, al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan, most of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and al Qaeda itself is a sect of radical fundamentalist Muslims while the Ba’athist regime of Hussein was secular, “Westernized” and non-religious.  After deliberately capitalizing on American ignorance of the Middle East in their push for the 2003 invasion the Bush White House then repeatedly appeared on news broadcasts throughout 2004 stating they were unsure why Americans ever thought Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, short of them making the connection in the national mind. Not one press agent took Bush to task over this statement or the many other faux pas in the speech.  But as I have been saying for the past ten years, there is no true mainstream media in America, only a finally oiled machine that services as a PR firm for the power elite. And as Democrats crawl over themselves like swine in the pigpen of political correctness, Americans are being are being sent off to slaughter.(cut and paste URLs into browser to view stories)

http://www.groundhog.tv/apps/editor/staticplayer.jsp?clip=1186522656263.wmv

http://www.guardian.co.uk/video/page/0,,2125978,00.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070816/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/army_suicides_22

http://www.guardian.co.uk/video/page/0,,2135293,00.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0411-03.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/14/AR2007061401643.html

http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd12172005.html