Features > February 11, 2004

Weapon of Mass Distraction

By Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

President Bush used his State of the Union address as a weapon of mass distraction and ignored the actual imminent threats to our country. He cited our pre-emptive invasion and occupation of Iraq as a lesson that other nations have learned, but his words were a major distraction to the real moral lesson that Bush is teaching our children: “The end justifies the means.”

At the same time, the president ignored the real and imminent threats to our country:

• Nearly 20 million Americans unemployed or underemployed and an official unemployment rate of 10.3 percent for African Americans.
• 44 million Americans with no health insurance and no plan to insure every American—with minorities comprising 52 percent of the nation’s year-round uninsured population.
• A poverty rate now at 12 percent nationally and rising to nearly 25 percent in 2004 for African Americans.
• Under-funding by $9 billion his own domestic priority—the No Child Left Behind Act—while using public dollars to fund vouchers to private and parochial schools that can discriminate.
• With no solution offered to the fiscal crisis that’s confronting 45 of the 50 states that face deficits.

While President Bush wants to make “national security” his issue in the 2004 campaign—using fear to scare the American people into voting for him—we are still vulnerable because he is more concerned about giving no-bid contracts to his corporate friends than in adequately protecting our borders, providing enough money to inspect boats in our ports, fully equipping and training first responders, improving our domestic nuclear security and protecting our communities against bio-terrorist attacks.

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• Reader Comments

  All too true...All too sad...His lies leading us down a path of war...what will come of it? Civil war in Iraq, the destruction of relationships with our traditional allies (generations in the building of), destruction of the Kurds, the development of another fundamentalist state stripping the rights of women. What a mess. Bush should be tried in an international court for crimes against humanity and treason for lying to us. Our children and children`s children paying for his deception for the next twenty years. The continued destruction of our industry.And you`re hearing this from a Republican of thirty years...I will hopefully be voting a Democratic ticket...I donĄt have a clue what the next president will do with the mess he inherits.

  Posted by Christiane S. Harrison on Feb 15, 2004 at 11:53 AM

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• Weapon of Mass Distraction