Empty Words for the War-Torn

By Colbert I. King
Saturday, January 24, 2004; Page A19

Since President Bush's State of the Union speech last year, thousands of Americans have experienced the emotional equivalent of a 9/11 event in their lives. Because the tragedies weren't collective, didn't occur in a single day or within the confines of a downtown city block, the devastation and pain may have been lost on the rest of us. But within the past year, more than 500 Americans have lost their lives, thousands have been maimed -- many for life -- and an untold number of U.S. families and communities have been shattered because of war in a far-off place called Iraq.

Last Tuesday night was an opportunity for George W. Bush to eulogize the fallen, a chance for him to tell their families what their sacrifices mean to the nation -- a time for the president to help heal broken hearts. That didn't happen.

Yes, in his long address to a joint session of Congress, Bush offered a few words of praise for the skill and courage of the men and women in the military. He delivered a line about "sorrow when one is lost," and shared a self-serving recollection of himself landing on the deck of a carrier in the Pacific Ocean and his Thanksgiving Day fly-in to Baghdad. There was also a pledge to supply the troops with all the resources they need to fight and win. But victims of the Iraq war, as well as their moms, dads, spouses, children, neighbors and friends, deserved more than what they got from the president.

Instead of a moment of silence for those who have paid the ultimate price, they heard presidential pitches for prescription drugs and a new immigration law, and a denunciation of steroids and gay marriage. Instead of hearing the president recognize the preciousness of young lives expended far from home, they got a plea to put Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts. Instead of telling the country why it should remember what the dead and dying stood for, Americans were given an earful on child tax credits, the death tax and cuts in taxes on capital gains.

Sure, the president had a right to use the State of the Union to defend his policies against his Democratic critics. And, yes, it was no surprise that he took advantage of the occasion to trot out his campaign themes.

But all the smiling and presidential bonhomie on display seemed ill-placed for a country still at war. Looking at the partisan cheering and all of the leaping-to-their-feet on the Republican side of the aisle, you wouldn't know that thousands of Americans are bearing the sorrows of armed conflict. You wouldn't know that the chief reason we went to war -- because Saddam Hussein allegedly had weapons of mass destruction and planned to use them -- has not been backed up by any credible evidence.

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