WASHINGTON, Jan 24: US President George W. Bush implored his nation in his sixth annual State of the Union address to give his new Iraq strategy “a chance to work.”
In the 50-minute speech, Mr Bush also blamed Iran for leading the Middle East to a regional war, castigated Syria for meddling in Lebanon and singled out Hezbollah as a destabilising force in the region.
He also spoke of the resurgence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan but said that the US and NATO forces were successfully thwarting their efforts. However, most of his speech was devoted to the Iraq war, which he described as part of a larger war on terror. “Our country is pursuing a new strategy in Iraq, and I ask you to give it a chance to work," the president told a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Mr Bush assumed almost a pleading tone every time he spoke of the need to support the war but showed no flexibility in his plan for sending additional troops to Iraq.
The president used a combination of fear and promises of victory to rally the nation behind his strategy, telling the Americans that the war is winnable but warned that a failure in Iraq could lead to more 9/11 likes attacks.
Yet he made little impact on the opposition Democrats who fell over themselves in the rush to condemn his stance on Iraq.
“Unfortunately, tonight the president demonstrated he has not listened to Americans' single greatest concern: the war in Iraq," said Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the House, in a joint statement with Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader. Both are Democrats.
Mr Bush rejected Democratic arguments for pulling US troops out of Baghdad. “Whatever you voted for, you did not vote for failure," he said while referring to those who voted for Democrats in November’s congressional elections.
Ms Pelosi often refused to stand and applaud Mr Bush, especially when he spoke about Iraq, ignoring a congressional tradition that required her to do so.
Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democratic Senator, said two of the best words he heard in Mr Bush's speech were "Madame Speaker."
Mr Bush acknowledged the United States did not bargain for the sectarian violence wracking Iraq but said “it is the fight we are in” and need to win.
He said one sectarian group in Iraq has provoked the other to the point of forming death squads.
"This is not the fight we entered in Iraq but it is the fight we are in," Mr Bush said. "Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won. Yet it would not be like us to leave our promises, our friends abandoned and our own security at risk.
“Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. So let us find our resolve and turn events toward victory."
Mr Bush urged Congress to give Iraq the reinforcements it needs -- 20,000 additional US troops. And he called on the Iraqi government to make the hard decisions necessary to quell the violence.
"The people of Iraq want to live in peace and now is the time for their government to act," Mr Bush said. "Iraq's leaders know that our commitment is not open ended."
He urged the Democrat-led Congress to put partisan politics aside and work on problems facing the nation.
"Congress has changed but not our responsibilities," Mr Bush said, adding, "Like many before us, we can work through our differences and achieve big things for the American people."
It was his first State of the Union speech since the Democrats took control of Congress. Mindful of this change, Mr Bush used words like ‘we,’ ‘us,’ or ‘our’ every time he referred to the new Congress to emphasize the bipartisan nature of his appeal to the lawmakers.
He summed up his outreach to the Democrats with the statement: "Our citizens don't much care which side of the aisle we sit on -- as long as we are willing to cross that aisle when there is work to be done."
Mr Bush described the war on terror as a "generational struggle that will continue long after you and I have turned our duties over to others.”
The audience included as many as 10 potential candidates for the 2008 presidential election. A silence fell over the crowd as Mr Bush reviewed US setbacks in Iraq in 2006, which proved to be a particularly violent year.
A first time senator from Virginia, Jim Webb, replied on behalf of the Democrats. “This country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years … the president took us into this war recklessly,” he said.
Senator Webb claimed that Mr Bush disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and “many, many others” who urged him not to go to war.
“We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable -- and predicted -- disarray that has followed,” he said.
While talking about his domestic agenda, Mr Bush said he would ask Congress for $1.6 billion over the decade to fund research into alternative energy and $2 billion in loans for cellulosic ethanol plants.
“For too long our nation has been dependent on foreign oil," he said. "And this dependence leaves us more vulnerable to hostile regimes, and to terrorists -- who could cause huge disruptions of oil shipments -- raise the price of oil ... and do great harm to our economy."
